Wings of Light
by Wings-of-Light
Summary: Read summary inside: Hitomi is a senior that just moved to Japan and will be attending Gaea High school please read and review there are a lot of twists and turns and well you'll see at the end.. there is romance ;)
1. Default Chapter

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Escaflowne or any of the characters in it. This is of my own demented and deranged thoughts.  
  
More summary info: Hitomi just moved to Japan from Scotland. She will be going to Gaea High School. What will happen when her uncle forces her to do something that she would never do? Who does Hitomi end up with? Sorry I like keeping things underwrap even who she gets paired up with in the end. So read and review please, and be brutally honest if you have to! Enjoy!!! ~Wings of Light~  
  
The wind whipped at Hitomi Kanzaki's short honey hair. It was noon on a chilly October day, the 30th to be exact. Hitomi had just turned eighteen last month and shortly after that her father was arrested for embezzlement at his accounting firm. Her mother, embarrassed and horrified, divorced him and decided to move to a new town. Forget that even, a new country that seemed like a whole new world. The last month had been hard for Hitomi, of course the divorce did not hit her that hard since she knew she was not the problem. It was the fact of moving half-way across the globe to Japan that was hard for her. Born in Scotland, Hitomi longed to see rolling green hills and fog but that would not be possible here. All she saw cherry blossoms and other exotic plants she would only see in textbooks in Scotland. Fortunately for herself, she did not have a huge accent since her family was Japanese. She had a Japanese accent and spoke Japanese fluently. So it seems Hitomi would fit in just right here in Japan. Awakening out of her reverie she turned up the collar of her jean jacket and then turned around to look at her new neighborhood. Pleasant looking Japanese houses lined the street, and it seemed that each had a Zen garden and Bonsai trees. Little children ran around playing tag, and the average-mid-life crisis-married man was tending to his pathetic excuse for a lawn. Everything was quiet even at midday. Hitomi let out a deep sigh when she saw her mother leaving for her new job. "Everything is different, everything's so...so... peaceful and happy," she mused, "I've got an odd feeling about this place, I hope mom enjoys it here. I hope I like it here." Absentmindedly she stroked her pink teardrop shaped pendant. "Maybe..." she whispered out loud. The house was finished, all that was left was to unpack her own boxes and decorate her room. But Hitomi did not feel like it, she just stood on the landing outside of her window scanning the neighbor hood with her hazel eyes. A figure darted out of the house across the street and stopped in Hitomi's yard. A girl about the same age as her with waist length white hair and cerulean eyes waved at her. "HI!" Yelled the spunky girl. "I'm Sora and you must be my new neighbor." Sora's voice reminded Hitomi of the little silver bells in music stores, so clear and beautiful. Sora gracefully climbed up onto the landing to shake hands with Hitomi. "I'm Hitomi Kanzaki," Hitomi said while running her other hand through her short hair. They were almost the same height, though Sora was an inch or two shorter. The awkward silence continued for about five more minutes while they studied each other. Finally Sora broke the silence. "Well it looks like you still need to unpack." She stated as she peered around Hitomi and through her window. "Yea, I still have to get to that. It's not exactly on the top of my 'TO DO' list." She responded with some regret. "And what would be on the top?" "Probably get a water balloon and launch an attack against that guy." Hitomi pointed to what you would call a "pretty boy" walking down the street. "I have to urge to wreck that pretty long blonde hair. I bet he took hours getting it that luminescent! He reminds me of my ex-boyfriends vain beyond belief." "Yea, well I'd like to, too. But I have to see him in school and so will you, better get used to 'pretty boy' there. So.. need help with your room?" Sora asked. "Sure." Hitomi shrugged. Sora let out a girlish wail and was completely energized as she jumped into the mass of boxes and started to rip boxes open in a frenzy. Over the next hour both had accomplished the impossible together. Hitomi's room was set up and decorated, and she actually had fun doing it. The room was a sky blue color and her sheets matched it. The wall nearest to the door was devoted to books and CDs. The one which the window was on had her paintings and drawing across the room. Her bed was set underneath the window. The wall right behind her had pictures of friends and family completely covering it, and the last open wall (which where the closet was) had a body length mirror on it, and random movie posters. Sora and Hitomi chatted it up the whole time, they instantly bonded. "Hey you know our school is having a masquerade dance tomorrow night. Wanna come?" Sora asked while she climbed out of the window. "I don't know...I won't know anyone but you..." Hitomi trailed off. "I swear you'll love it. Please?" Sora gave Hitomi her biggest, cutest, and most wet puppy dog eyes with the quivering lip too. "Alright I'll go." She groaned. Sora let out another girlish cry and hugged Hitomi. " I'll come by about sever, OK?" "OK." Hitomi replied nonchalantly. After Soar had scrambled down and dashed to her house Hitomi went to her closet and started looking for her costume. * * * 


	2. chapter 2: the dance and character intro...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Escaflowne or any of the characters. This is of my own deranged and demented thoughts.  
  
Author's notes:  
  
Japanese words used in this chapter  
  
Nai - No Hai - Yes Akambo - Baby  
  
The song sung by Sora later on in this chapter is the one she sang in the Escaflowne movie to call Hitomi to Folken. I will list the literal translation and the translation used by bandai.  
  
Literal English Version:  
  
You were the first dragon ~ My beloved ~ I've been watching you ~ From atop the fairy stump~  
  
How beautifully did the water touch those lips ~ How you shone at the spearhead of battle ~  
  
La la la la la la la la la...~ Because you flew away ~ La la la la la la la la la...~ The sky is unseen to me ~  
  
Let's just sell this spinning-wheel ~ So everything will be illusion ~  
  
My beloved ~ You were the first dragon ~  
  
Bandai Subtitle Version:  
  
In the darkness, the dragon wakes ~ To a heart numbed with cold, the dragon roars ~ With you by my side, the dragon sleeps ~ When the dragon gains wings ~ Into the sky, our hopes will leap ~  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ October 31st, Halloween  
  
Hitomi stood in front of her mirror admiring what she had created. She wore a key lime spaghetti-strap dress. The bottom fell right above her knees and was tattered, much like Tinker Bell's dress. The dress fit her body perfectly (as all other dresses do in fan fictions or anime shows :wink:). Hitomi had a slim figure with curves in the right places. She was not Pamela Anderson in the upper body respects, but she was not flat, she was just right. Since the night was warm, she decided to go bare legged. Hitomi could afford too, after years of strenuous track training her legs were toned and slender. Bending down she put on a pair of brown lace up sandals. The criss-cross laces worked their way up her calf and ended at the crook in her knee. Next Hitomi went over to her bed and picked up a pair of faerie wings. They were a pale white, almost translucent, she slipped her arms through the nylon loops that were attached to the wings and adjusted them so they were snug but not uncomfortable. She still wore her pink pendant, which her grandmother gave her. It rested nicely in the V cut of her dress but did not draw too much attention. Her hair was just as it always was, Hitomi never did anything to her hair. A light silver powder coated her eyelids and a similar shade of lip stick made her lips a pale violet. The last thing Hitomi did was put on her mask. It was a simple key lime colored domino mask. A soft knock came at her window, Sora stood outside dressed as a faerie also. Except she was in a baby blue strapless dress. The bottom cut from her mid thigh to mid calf and had ruffles. Her pair of wings were about the same hue of violet that Hitomi's lips were. Sora also had on a mask, but one that matched her dress. "Ready?" "Hai." Hitomi called down to her mother that they were leaving. A quiet "OK" sounded from somewhere downstairs. Hitomi loved her mother, but at times they had nothing in common and felt like strangers living together. Hitomi crawled out of the window making sure not to rip her wings or her dress. ~~~~~~~~~~~ They arrived at the school close to 7:45. The school was outlined by the setting sun and all Hitomi could do was stare at it. "Wow, this place is huge." Sora giggled mischievously as she pulled Hitomi through the throng of masqueraders. Hitomi soon lost Sora, so she walked around looking for her. All of a sudden a pair of muscular hands grabbed her waist and hoisted her above the crowd. The song "Stupid Girl" was playing, and quite frankly she did feel stupid. She felt hands underneath her passing her along to the next person and with each hand her fear grew stronger. Crowd surfing was something she never wanted to do. As her uneasiness grew her pendant started to glow stronger. Soon she couldn't feel the hands anymore. Hitomi let out a shrill scream as she plummeted towards the gym floor. She covered her face with her arms and shut her eyes bracing herself for the landing and the pain. But no pain came. She opened her eyes, her nose was one inch from the floor. Above her was someone holding onto her waist. The callused hands brought her gently upright and then turned her around. "An angel..." She gasped when she saw her rescuer. He was dressed as an angel, or not dressed. He wore a pair of loose white yoga pants and magnificent white wings jutted from his back. He wore no shirt, her eyes traveled up and down him. His muscles gleamed and rippled as he moved (can't really describe this but he is built not regular built but built built like pecs, abs, his arms.. oh don't get me started on the arms, everything is just completely rock hard but lean not body builder bulky if ya know what I mean). Feeling embarrassed she looked up into his face. He wore a white mask but his maroon eyes shown through. They were warm looking, if that's even possible and he had a mass of unruly jet-black hair that hung loosely over those tantalizing eyes. He had tan skin, almost had a golden glow to it, you could tell this guy spent a lot of time shirtless in the sun working out. His face was angular but it suited him well. She blushed a little at what she was thinking by now, so she looked at his mouth. It was moving but she couldn't hear anything. "Are you OK?" Van (by now all you Van fans would know it was him duh so I decided to put his name in) reached out and gently shook her shoulder. Snapping out of her stupor she stammered out an answer. "Uhh.. hai. Thanks for.uhhh..saving me there." He smiled. Hitomi thought, "Man he has a sexy smile." "No problem, it's always a pleasure to save a damsel-in-distress and especially one as beautiful as you." He dropped his hand from her shoulder when he said this. Van's deep tenor voice thrilled her. He studied her for a minute. His eyes traveled over her taking in what he saw. "She must be new. I don't recognize the voice." He thought. "I couldn't forget a voice like hers." His eyes locked with hers, embarrassed Hitomi looked away. When she turned back, he was gone. "What?! Where'd he go?" Hitomi looked at the people around her, they were all dancing and talking to each other completely oblivious to her or the angel-boy. She shook her head as if to erase it, like and etch -e- sketch. "Maybe I imagined it all, maybe I imagined him." Not sure of herself she smoothed her dress out and started her search for Sora again. Unfortunately luck was not on her side. Not looking where she was going, Hitomi ran into a girl dressed like a Chinese fighter. She stood a little taller than Hitomi and was built the same way as Hitomi, but a little more endowed than herself. The girl's ashen hair was pulled back into a high ponytail and it cascaded down to her waist. Hitomi looked up into her face, her full lips were pulled into a frown and her icy blue eyes glared at Hitomi. "Uhh...sorry about that." Hitomi quipped. "Wow, I'm doing a great job tonight." She thought with sarcasm. "You just pushed your luck girl." The girl seethed as she moved into a fighting position. Her black outfit gleamed in the low light and her eyes penetrated Hitomi. "Are you serious?" Hitomi croaked. "Dead serious." "Alright." Hitomi removed her wings and handed them to one of the people that was forming a wide circle around the two. Hitomi went down into a similar crouch. The other girl launched herself at Hitomi and thrust a fist towards Hitomi's face. At the last second Hitomi blocked the punch and swung the girl around on her momentum. After she let go, Hitomi let out a kick to the girl's stomach and sent her flying back into the crowd. The crowd gaped at Hitomi as she walked towards the downed girl. Hitomi stuck out her hand to the girl when she was above her. From the floor the girl gazed up at the Tinker Bell look alike, seeing that she meant no harm the girl grasped the hand that was held out to her. Hitomi scratched her head with her free hand. "Sorry about that.." she trailed off. "Nai, don't be. I'm just a little miffed tonight. I should be the one saying sorry. I'm Millerna Aston." The girl said cheerfully as she shook Hitomi's hand. "I'm Hitomi Kanzaki. I'm new." "You must be, I don't recognize the name. You're tough too, that was freakin awesome, I haven't had my butt kicked by anyone in a long time, minus this one guy named Van." They let go of each others hands and walked through the crowds of teenagers. "So you're new, eh?" Millerna inquired in this is-that-a-fact kind of voice. "Hai." Hitomi retrieved her wings before she found a spot next to Millerna on the floor. "You're not one for many words are you Hitomi Kanzaki?" "Nai, well not right now. I can be very talkative though when needed or put under torture." The two girls laughed heartily at the comment. "Well I hope you're in some of my classes tomorrow." Millerna sighed. "I hope I can FIND my classes tomorrow, this place is huge!" Hitomi responded with rue in her voice. A sound caught Hitomi's and Millerna's ear, a girl crying. Sora came running down the hall, skidded at the intersection, and then ran into the bathroom. Millerna and Hitomi looked at each other dumbfounded. Footsteps resounded on the floor from where Sora came, they turned their heads. A man with short pale blue hair and dark sienna eyes was running. His four black angel wings were fluttering, like the other angel he was well built and shirtless. His face was hard and had a jutting square chin. He called out in a baritone voice. "SORA!" He halted at the intersection halls and turned towards Hitomi and Millerna. Both pointed to the girls' bathroom. He ran down to the bathroom and stood outside of the door. In a calming voice he tried to ease the girl's sobs. "Sora, Sora I have no choice. It just can't be the way it was before, not anymore. But I still love you dangit!" The cries grew louder. "Folken," a high strung voice rang out from a boy in a Dare Devil costume. "There's nothing you can do right now, just let her be." Folken's head fell down in agreement and disappointment as he trudged away from the bathroom door. "Come on man, let's get you out of here." The Dare Devil said. His red eyes bore sympathy for the love lorn man. Hitomi and Millerna, again, watched Folken was led away by the Dare Devil. Hitomi stood up and dusted off her dress. "I better go now, Sora probably needs all the friends she can get." "Both of us better go in there." As they entered the bathroom Sora soon came into view. She lay on the floor being held by a girl dressed up like cat woman. Her body was racked with sobs and she could barely support herself, in all Sora looked fragile and broken at the same time. "Sora, Akambo, it's ok..." Hitomi said to Sora as she knelt down next to her. She gently pulled Sora's hair away from her tear stained face. "What happened Sora?" "It (gasp) will take (another gasp) to long to explain Hitomi." "Are you going to be alright?" Hitomi stroked her hair. This time the cat woman answered. "Eventually, Millerna why don't you fill her in and go find Dilandau and Dryden." "Right, Merle." Millerna answered with quick nod. Millerna pulled Hitomi away from Sora without much effort. As they were walking Millerna began to reveal Sora's story. "First off all the guy with the black angel wings is Folken Fanel. He's a student teacher at this school. He's going for his degree in teaching Art. He is about 21, not that old, he also has a little brother in our grade named Van. Haven't seen Van yet tonight. But back to Sora. Before Folken got assigned to teach at this school they were dating each other. Folken lives near to Sora so they've known each other practically their whole lives. One day Sora, when she was a freshman and Folken a senior, one day she was feeling a bit depressed so she came before school to the choir room...."  
  
*Flashback* Sora peered around the corner and snuck into the choir room, little to her knowledge Folken was in the room reading behind the stands. When she got in she looked around to make sure no one was in sight. The stands gleamed beneath the fluorescent lights as she tiptoed towards the piano. With on quick fluid movement Sora adjusted the bench and sat down at the piano. A simple but melancholy harmony soon developed at the hands of Sora. She began to sing, her voice was clear but a little subdued. (The song from Escaflowne that she sang) Win dain a lotica En vai tu ri Si lo ta Fin dein a loluca En dragu a sei lain Vi Fa-ru les shutai am En riga-lint (She closed her eyes and swayed to the unheard rhythm.) Win chent a lotica En vai tu ri Si lo ta Fin dein a loluca Si katigura neuver Floreria for chesti Si entina (Folken watched between the cracks in the stands.) La la la la la la la la la... Fontina blu cent De cravi esca letisimo La la la la la la la la la... De quantian La finde reve (By then Folken, transfixed and hypnotized by Sora's voice, dropped his book and walked in a slow pace to the piano.) Win dain a lotica En vai tu ri Si lo ta Fin dein a loluca En dragu a sei lain Vi fa-ru les shutai am En riga-lint The song ended and Sora opened her eyes to see Folken leaning on his elbow watching her with obvious intent. She blushed. "Why didn't you ever tell me you could sing?" He asked in a whisper. Before Sora could answer Folken swung down onto the piano bench nest to her and kissed her softly. As Folken began to pull away Sora realized what he had just done and pulled him back into a kiss. * End of flashback* "Both were really surprised about how they felt towards each other. They're totally in love with each other but since Folken is a student teacher here he can't date her, school policies and all. He's as hurt as she is I just hope they can make it through this year." Millerna sighed as she ended. Hitomi just walked in silence next to her looking at the floor. She knew how Sora felt, not to be able to be with someone she loved. She missed her dad and her friends in Scotland with a fierce passion. Hitomi's head perked up when Millerna spotted Dilandau and Dryden. The two of them led the Dare Devil (which turned out to be Dilandau), and a guy named Dryden who was dressed like a 14th century monk(except he still had all of his gorgeous hair). All of them wore express of worry and fatigue. When the group reached the bathroom Merle came out supporting Sora, whose snow white hair had been let down to cover her face. Dilandau and Dryden took Sora and Merle and left the building in a silent rush. The two girls stood and watched as they left and then decided to return to the darkened dance room. Saying a quick good-bye Millerna left to dance again while Hitomi studied her new school. The song "Angel" by Massive Attack came on over the speakers, couples starting dancing slowly with one another. So Hitomi decided to find a spot to sit down against the wall. She sat with her legs stretched out in front of her and her wings being crushed by the wall. The voice of the singer filled the room. "You are my angel...come from way above..." Van regarded the girl from across the room. She had a slim but nice figure; her skin was pale, smooth, and soft to the touch. His body shivered in remembrance. He chuckled at the way she was sitting, not the most lady like position with her legs apart, especially for wearing a dress. The girl's eyes and lips seemed to enchant him the most. The eyes were a deep hazel with little flecks of gold in them, and the lips were full and pale. Both seemed so shocking against the ivory skin of her face. "Love you love you love you love you love you..." The quiet voice of the singer chanted. He stood up from his crouched position and glided over towards the girl. "Mind if I join you?" Hitomi looked up startled. "You are my angel...come from way above..." The singer reiterated. Remembering herself and her manners she responded. "Sure, if you want to." She patted the piece of floor next to her. She laughed as he struggled to get to the floor with his wings on. Van responded by "accidentally" turning his shoulder to bat Hitomi in the face with his right wing. "Hey now!" "What did I do something?" He asked innocently while trying to hold back his laughter. They locked eyes and Hitomi tried to act furious at the angel. "Love you love you love you love you..." The singer died out and the song ended in a hush. Hitomi lost it first, she burst out laughing. Holding her stomach she started to fall over onto Van. That was the last straw from Van, his deep throated laugh soon filled the air. They fell over each other unable to stop laughing. Tears started to form in their eyes and their stomachs began to ache. A couple of minutes later their laughter died down. "What were we laughing about?" Hitomi squeaked between giggles. Gasping to breathe Van managed a weak , "I have no clue." Composing themselves they were able to talk again. "So you're new?" "Does it show that much? Hai, I am. I just moved to here from Scotland." Hearing this Van quirked one of his thin black eyebrows. "So is it true, that the men don't wear anything under those skirt things?" "You mean kilts?" "Hai, those things." "I really wouldn't know. I don't go around de-kilting guys." She blushed a little. "Hey for all I know you might have had a fetish for it." He commented playfully. Hitomi jabbed the angel in the ribs with her elbow. Van (the angel) pretended to be hurt, so in response Hitomi continued by poking him in the stomach. Eventually, Hitomi stopped so they watched the crowd together. Upon seeing a couple dressed as Cinderella and Prince Charming, Hitomi leaned over and asked him who they were. "Oh, that's Yukari and Amano. We call them 'The Couple Charming' mainly because well... you'll see once you meet them." "K." Hitomi's eyes scanned the room and landed on a guy in a knight costume. He had long blonde hair that looked like it had taken him hours to do. She whispered out loud to the angel. "I spy with my eye something that starts with a 'P.' Pretty boy." She pointed. Van followed the long graceful finger towards the person. "Allen Schezar." He spat out in disgust. Hitomi regarded the circle of girls around him. "He's a player I take it?" "The worst. Never ever, get Millerna Aston on the subject of him, she'll rip you to shreds." "Thanks for the heads up." She rolled her eyes with drama. Hitomi looked for a clock, 10:30 already. "AHHHH!! I have to get home." Hitomi bounded to her feet. Van turned his head and saw the time also. "Yea I should too." Hitomi held out her hand to Van. "You might need my help. You had a little trouble sitting down with those wings on. Who knows what will happen if you try to stand up by yourself." Hitomi suppressed a giggle at the thought of the angel struggling to stand up. Grasping her hand while saying a quick "Shut up." Van pulled himself off the ground. Suddenly he was inches from her, seeing how close they were he took a step back and said lead the way. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Finally after taking the wrong turn five times the came to Hitomi's street. Hitomi thanked him for bringing her home. She turned and started to climb the tree to get to her window when he spoke. "Hey, need help?" "Nai, I'm good, thanks anyways. I'll see you tomorrow at school!" "Hai, see you tomorrow." Thirty seconds later Hitomi was in her room safe and collapsed on the bed in a deep sleep. Van waited until she got into her window before he started down the street. The breeze had picked up a little bit and it pushed his hair out of his maroon eyes. "Hai, see you whoever you are, maybe I won't be stupid enough not to ask your name." Van thought. He started to jog and then broke out in a run down the street. His wings moved and then stretched out as he soon took flight off into the night sky. (And ya'll thought they were fake.. hahahahahah...) 


	3. Chap 3 Hitomi's first day sorry if it's ...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Escaflowne or any of the characters in it, this is a just a story of my own weird and degenerate imagination. Author's notes: Yeah, there will be French and Japanese stuff in here. I will list the Japanese words up here but I will put the French translations right after the sentence in parenthesis so don't get confused. Also this story is set over about a year so I'll put dates and say phrases like the month past like any others. I do this mainly because I don't want to have to write out all the minuscule details of every day of that year.. So there will be times when I skip a couple weeks or days.. depends on something but the main things I write are important things...so yeah you get the idea. And to ya'll out there that didn't like the format I hope this one turns out better than the last...really do hope. Another thing... this one will seem long because it's Hitomi's first day and I have to go through all 7 hours of that day. So if I'm vague don't hate me. Oh yeah! Thank you all who reviewed it I love feedback!!!!!Even if it's brutally honest. :)Yeah. lol...*laughs in a maniacal voice* let's begin now shall we? p.s. uhhh yeah, sorry to disappoint all of the Yukari and Amano fans but I'm not going to focus on them really....but you'll get to see somethings of them I promise! Oh and Mrs. Kanzaki doesn't have a huge role... Love, peace, and chicken grease (The pest I love that movie!!!!) Wings_Of_Light aka Gina Japanese Words Konichiwa - Hi (wow I hope I spelled that right) Hai- yes Nai- No Gomen- Sorry Saru - Monkey Tama - Ball (in this case I want it to be plural so balls) Akambo - Baby Saru Tama - supposed to mean monkey balls in this...one of my fav phrases.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~ Monday November 1st "Hitomi?" Mrs.Kanzaki called from the hallway. "HMmmmMHMMmm..." A muffled response came from Hitomi. Hitomi lay sprawled out on her bed. Her face embedded into the light blue pillow and her covers strewn about. She lifted her fuzzy head off the pillow and squinted at the clock. "Saru Tama!" Her eyes bulged and she catapulted out of her bed in the morning light. Her first day of school and she was going to be late already. Stripping out of her costume (if you recall she fell asleep in it) she jumped in the shower. Twenty minutes later she was getting dressed. Hitomi decided to wear a pair of very worn out Jean flares, the jeans were form fitting after several years of hard use. She pulled on a shirt with a faceless angel. She had painted this herself one cold and dreary day in Scotland. It was man in the picture, if angels can even have a gender. But the angel bore a strange resemblance to the angel Hitomi had met last night. The wings were expanded to the fullest and they seemed to stretch to the sky. Each of the feathers had a slightly different tint or shading, she knew that she had spent the most time on the wings but they were glorious. The angel on the shirt was without a shirt and had the same build as the guy Hitomi had met. And it also had his hair, but no face since it was a faceless angel. Grabbing her track gear Hitomi bolted for her school. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~ She arrived in the classroom just before the bell and not even in a sweat. Her pendant glowed slightly and her tennis shoes were still warm from the sprint. "Ah, students I'm glad to introduce our new student. Hitomi Kanzaki. Ms. Kansaki, why don't you tell us a few things about yourself." Mr.Bargus grinned. "Oh, I'm Hitomi Kanzaki. I just moved here from Scotland. I enjoy running....." Mr.Bargus cut in, "Enjoy?! Quit being modest Ms.Kanzaki." He turned towards the class and Hitomi felt the color rising in her cheeks. He continued, "Ms.Kanzaki ran the 200 meter for the Scotland Olympic Team last year. In fact she won the gold medal in it." Hitomi turned red. "Hai, it wasn't that big of a deal, I just got lucky. But besides that, I love painting and I can play the piano a little." She bowed to the class. "Well thank you Ms.Kanzaki now would you take your spot next to Mr.Fanel. Mr. Fanel raise you hand please." "Yo." The answer came from the angel she had met last night. Unlike the rest of the class, he was not gaping at her. He did not even raise his hand, he was sketching something at a rapid pace. A smile spread across Hitomi's face as she made her way to her spot next to the angel boy. She peered at him out of the corner of her eye. His hands were smeared with charcoal and his eyes resembled hot embers. A body was fast becoming recognizable on the sketch pad. An angel of some sort, a woman or so it seemed. A faceless angel (how odd :Wink:) with a tear-drop shaped object floating in front of her. Van seemed almost done, his last touch was to give the woman hair that swept down to her stomach. Hitomi leaned over. "Nice drawing, I think it matches the painting I did on my shirt." Van snapped out of his Utopia-like mind set. Seeing Hitomi he smiled. "Thanks." His eyes traveled to her shirt. "Hai, they are a lot alike. You painted that?" "Hai, a couple years ago I did." She beamed. "You're good." Van commented bluntly. Hitomi felt her cheeks grow warm again. "Thanks." "I'm Van." He held out his charcoal covered hand. "Hitomi Kanzaki." They shook hands. "Hai, I know. I heard Mr.Bargus and his rantings of your winnings last year." "Oh." "Don't worry, I won't fawn over you about the Olympics thing. But I don't make guarantees for anyone else." He winked at her. "Thanks again." "Ahem!" Mr.Bargus stood in front of them tapping his foot and glaring at them. "If you two are done now?" Both Van and Hitomi felt their cheeks grow warm. Hitomi looked down at her desk. "Gomen." "It's acceptable this time Ms.Kanzaki, you're new. But for you Mr.Fanel see me after class." He turned and stalked away. Van turned towards Hitomi again and smiled, Hitomi looked up. ~Don't worry.~ Van mouthed. Hitomi smirked. The rest of the class was spent listening to Mr.Bargus rave on about Theta derivatives. Finally, AP Calculus was done. Hitomi sighed with relief and hurried out of the room. Remembering Van she waited for him outside of the door. She leaned back against the cool brick wall, she had a feeling this day was going to be a long one. Van came out of the room with the same sheepish grin he had on earlier. She pushed herself from the wall and matched pace with Van. Sensing the question coming from Hitomi, Van started talking. "He wants me to do some 'training' with the new fighting club he set up." Hitomi quirked an eyebrow, "Fight club? Wasn't that a movie?" "Hai and a dang good one too! But this combines any type of fighting and you can't or won't die." He flashed her a toothy grin. "Sounds fun." "Oh yeah, Mr. Bargus would like you to come along too." Hitomi stopped walking and faced Van. "He wants me to or you want me to?" He acted innocent. "Him of course." "So you don't want me to go? Afraid I'll kick your butt?" "What? No, wait... that's not what I meant...." Van stammered on. Talking to girls like Hitomi was certainly not his forte. She chuckled under her breath and shook her head. "Fine, I will then. When is it?" "At seven tonight. See ya there Hitomi." He turned and headed down the next hall. "Hai, see you there." Hitomi pulled out her crumpled schedule. Physics, she rolled her eyes. After being introduced, again, she plopped down next to her partner. Leaning forward, she put her face in her hands. "Bad day already?" She looked over. "Do they do this every time a new student comes?" "Do what?" "Introduce them in every class." "Only to the famous ones." The boy called Dilandau reached over and patted her head. His crayon red eyes were twinkling and his platinum hair shone in the light. "Wanna have some fun?" He whispered in her ear. He shoved his hand in his pocket and retrieved a small action figure that was dressed in a Klu Klux Klan outfit. Hitomi just looked at him like he was crazy. Seeing the look on her face his hand went back into the pocket and soon pulled out a small red lighter. He winked at Hitomi and then looked around quickly to see if the teacher was watching. Soon the little KKK doll was up in flames and the whole class including the teacher and Hitomi were doubled over laughing. Dilandau left his mark that day in the form of a charred and melted figurine. "You're a maniac!" Hitomi squealed while holding her side. "Why thank you, I do try." Dilandau did a "mock" bow. Hitomi cuffed him upside the head. "Ow." He pouted. "Quit being such an Akambo, Dilly-Dan." She giggled. His eyes flashed in anger. "Don't...call...me...Dilly-Dan." Dilandau was practically to the boiling point. "Gomen," She said quickly, "I promise I won't Dill-Pickle!" He punched her arm. Hitomi rubbed it a little because the punch did hurt a little. He grinned like a Cheshire cat. "You are a maniac." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~ "Third hour," She thought, "this day is going by so slow." Hitomi entered the gym for the second time in twenty-four hours. The room reeked of sweaty sneakers and BO Self-defense was the topic for today. Hitomi groaned when he door opened behind her, "pretty boy" stepped in. But she would not be depressed for long since Millerna and Merle also came in. Allen Schezar studied the new girl, "So this is our Olympic star. She's cute and has a nice bod." He thought. "Maybe I can take her on, or get her on me." The tips of his lips curled up like a wolf's does when stalking its prey. Hitomi stood in a triangle with Millerna and Merle. Now, she got a closer look at Merle. She was about 5'2" with short magenta hair. She had fierce brown eyes and had eyes that pointed at the tips like a cat's. There were a lot of things about her that seemed cat-like. It turns out that she was also Van's cousin, trippy. The gym teacher lectured the class and called for a demonstration. Hitomi and Allen. Hitomi muttered something under her breath in disgust while Allen just grinned. "Now Allen, I want you to come at her as fast as you can and try to get the advantage. Hitomi, you can defend yourself in anyway." All of the boys in the class winced at that comment. "Go!" Allen sped towards Hitomi, she did not move a muscle and stood with her hands hanging limply at her sides. Two feet away....one foot away, Hitomi's arm shot out and grabbed Allen's throat. He squawked and began to claw at her hands. Hitomi took her other arm and thrust it into his chest palm towards him (Keanu Reeves uses this move in the last fight scene in the Matrix I believe) sending him flying back a foot to the floor. He landed with a thud. Gazing up at Hitomi, Allen shook his head and then fainted. Millerna was the first to clap and the loudest. Gym class ended with people shaking her hand and patting her on the back. Seems that everyone thought Allen had it coming and that he deserved it. She spent her lunch Millerna, Merle, Dryden, and Dilandau. She found Dilandau to be an absolute pyro but one of the quirkiest and nicest guys she had ever met. Dryden was another story, he was soft-spoken and relaxed. He always had a book with him but whenever someone mentioned breasts his head flew up and looked around wildly. Needless to say, he was a perverted intellect. Merle, on the other hand, was vivacious and had a vicious temper. But if you got on her good side you were less likely to feel "the wrath of Merle" as Dryden put it so fondly. To her surprise, Hitomi got along with all of them the second they met. Hitomi's English class was amusing at the least. She sat behind Van and to either side of her was Dryden and Sora. The class, along with all the other classes, was to do a production of Jane Eyre. The teacher handed out the cast parts to the class and announced the other major roles and crew roles. (This book contains at least 20-30 characters, I will only list the ones that apply to our Esca characters here) Jane Eyre - Yukari Mr.Rochester - Dryden St.John Rivers - Allen Mary Rivers - sister of John cousin of Jane - Sora Diana Rivers - sister of John cousin of Jane - Millerna Blanche Ingram - Merle Mr.Mason - Dilandau Visiting Nobility - Van and Amano Director - Hitomi (All of the rest of the roles are inconsequential..since I won't even take scenes out of the book and show them acting...well because it would ruin the book for other people...but yeah this is just kind of a background thing so you know all you need to know.) After the teacher announced this Hitomi passed a note to Sora. ~How are you doing?~ She wrote ~Ok I guess. I don't think I'll make it through art though.~ ~Why?~ ~He teaches that class.~ ~Oh. Don't worry I'll help you through it.~ ~Thanks.~ ~No problem.~ The bell rang and the class filed out of the room. Hitomi sailed into her history class just barely missing the late bell. "Man this place is a maze!" "You'll get used to it." Hitomi spotted Merle and sat down next to her. The "Couple Charming" sat in front of them holding hands. "Van was right. They are charming." Hitomi whispered to Merle. "Hai. Van's right about a lot of things." "Is he now?" Hitomi looked surprised. "Hai, and everything he's said about you has been true so far too." "What did he say?" She asked in urgency. "Can't tell, I'm sworn to secrecy." She winked and the turned ahead to listen to the lesson. Hitomi's mind raced, "Van? Talking about me? Nai, she's just teasing me." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~ "Two more hours to go, only two more hours to go." Hitomi chanted to herself. Art was probably the most interesting hour of the day. Mr. Fanel, Folken, taught the class. Sora would not look at him as he passed between the paint easels. Hitomi stood between Van and "Pretty boy" Allen. (You can tell I really don't like Allen...lol.) She did not care though, once she got the camel hair brush and pallet in her hands she was in a whole different world. Van glanced over towards Hitomi's canvas. "Man she works fast." He thought and then turned back to his own canvas. The hour ended too soon, or so thought Hitomi. Her white smock was a virtual rainbow after she was done. Her painting had wings of an angel in it again. She did not know where her obsession came from but all she knew is that she had been obsessed with angel wings every since she got her necklace from her grandmother. Van's painting was odd too, a single woman stood in the middle of a room with waters swirling and rising around her waiting to engulf her.( If you have seen the movie then you can picture the scene where the water is swallowing her.) She went over to Sora's canvas and sighed heavily at what she saw. A portrait of Folken sitting in a dark corner with his head down almost in his lap and cradled by his hands. She looked at "Pretty boy's" canvas last. She stifled a laugh. His "painting" resembled something a six- year old would do. A simple flower and sun. He had a long way to go this year. The last class of the day had finally come, French 5. "Bonjour les eleves! (Good morning students)(By the way I can't do accents on my comp so yeah.. I'll be missing those for all of you French speakers don't get mad) Je suis Madame Esca Flowne, Vous puvez me nommer Madame Flowne. (I am Mrs. Esca Flowne. You can call me Mrs.Flowne.) Je suis votre nouvelle prof.( I am your new teacher.) Aujourd'hui, nous allons travailler sur nos projects francais. (Today we are going to work on our French projects.) Vos partenaires sont: (Your partners are) Dilandau et Millerna (Et means And), Sora et Van, Hitomi et Amano, Sarah et Kevin, et Nicolas et Sokie. Le theme est les couples fameux. (The theme is the famous couples.) Dilandau et Millerna sont Petruchio et Katarina. ( D. and M. are P. and K.) Sarah et Kevin sont Lancelot et Gweniviere. Nicolas et Sokie sont Othello et Desdemona. Van et Sora sont Romeo et Juliet. Finalement (Finally), Hitomi et Amano sont Hermia et Lysander. Commencez- vous! (Get started!)" Indeed this was a small class, most of the students usually drop out after French 4. Mme Flowne handed out the scripts and the students began. Hitomi's partner was nice enough but she could not help but wonder how Sora and Van were doing. Sora looked like she was on the verge of tears and Van had a frantic look in his eyes. His eyes locked with Hitomi's and pleaded to hers. Hitomi excused herself from Amano and told him that they would work more on it tomorrow. She crept over to Sora and pulled her out of the room, Van sighed in relief. Shortly after Hitomi returned without Sora. "How is she?" He inquired. "She'll get better. She's hit the bottom right now." Hitomi said in a quiet voice. "Uh...thanks..for doing that for me. She just started to choke up at a certain line and well I couldn't say anything to make her feel better." He trapped Hitomi in a tight hug, then as if frightened by what he was doing he let go and took a step back. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~ Finally the high point of Hitomi's day had come, track practice. She had made the Olympic team for Japan and she was more than ready to start. She spotted Yukari and Amano, it was nice to see people she knew. The coach drilled them hard. Hitomi was drenched in sweat and drained as she stepped in the shower. Emerging from the shower renewed, she sauntered home and collapsed on her bed. "Hitomi, Hitomi..." Mrs. Kanzaki gently shook her daughter awake. She rolled over, "Mmph. What is it? What time is it?" She asked in a groggy voice. "There's a boy outside to see you, and it's 6 o'clock. You have plenty of time to do you homework." "Don't have any, all the homework is done in school. Who's outside?" "Don't know, but he's cute." "Thanks mom." Silently Hitomi wished that it was either Dilandau or Van. She did not know what was going on in her mind but she did feel some sort of attraction towards Dilandau did not know what though. As for Van, who even knew what she felt for him because she did not. "Both are great guys," she thought. She sat up in a slow fashion and rubbed her eyes. Yawning, she checked her hair in the mirror. She ran her hands a couple times through her honey hair before she went to the window. She slid it up and climbed out onto the landing. Lying down on her stomach she lowered her head to look under the landing and at the front porch. "Konichiwa Van." Hitomi whispered in a husky voice into Van's ear. He jumped and spun around. "Don't do that!" He panted. Blood was rushing to her head. So Hitomi sat up and shook it around. Van stepped out from under the landing and looked up. "Come on up." He eyed the surroundings and climbed up to sit next to her. The sky was on fire with colors as the sun set. "What's up?" She questioned. "Just came over to welcome my new neighbor." He grinned and leaned back on his elbows. "New neighbor?" "Hai, I live next door." He pointed to the right. "No way!" Hitomi could not believe it. "Way." She laughed and then jabbed him in the ribs. He whimpered jokingly. "Don't forget we have fight club tonight." "Oh no! I almost did forget about it." "Good thing I'm here to remind you." "Hai it is." Hitomi's pendant shimmered a pale hue of pink. Van glanced at her, usually he could tell what people were thinking but not with Hitomi. His eyes burned when he looked at her pendant so he shifted his attention towards her room. "OoOo! Paintings!" Van vaulted through the window and landed with a thump. Hitomi followed in a similar suit and landed on Van's back as he lay on the floor gazing at her paintings. She knocked the wind out of him. "Gomen." Her face burned as she crawled off of Van's muscular body. He got his breath back in a short time. "It's ok. You really are obsessed with wings aren't you?" He asked while running a hand through his unruly hair. "Hai, I've had it for a while." She stood up and shoved her hands into her pockets. A voice sounded from outside breaking the spell of silence. "Van!" They both peeked their heads out of the window. "Let's go, fighting time!" Folken hollered from a silver convertible. "Hey can we bring Hitomi?" He shouted back. "Sure just get you butts in gear." Van smiled at Hitomi before he went out the window and jumped down from the landing. Hitomi grabbed some other workout clothes and then swiped a box of cereal bars on her way out. "Mom, be back later." "All right honey." Hitomi was out the door and in the car before Van even reached the car. "Crap you are fast." Van commented as he sat down in the Convertible. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~ "One more," Hitomi pleaded, "please?" Van groaned, "Alright, but if I beat you no more." The first they had fought Hitomi wasted him. But the second time Van stepped it up a notch. This time is to break the tie. They fought long and hard, both could not seem to get the upper hand. Van ended up on top of Hitomi, His hands and arms holding him up were outside of her shoulders and his legs were straddling her. His hair dripped down in his face and almost touched Hitomi's. Hitomi looked fragile from the view Van was looking at her from. Her hands were up in case he fell and she had one of her legs crooked. Both were breathing hard. Hitomi was trembling, this was not a good position to be in with a guy you felt attracted to. "Dang he is hot." She thought. They stared each other until Van broke the silence. "Gomen Hitomi." He said quickly before he rolled away. Standing up they regarded each other and then called a truce. Neither trusted their hormones or will power if they were that physically close. 


	4. Chapter 4 Costumes, guys, and water buck...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Escaflowne nor any of the characters. This fanfic is my own deranged mind working.  
Author's notes: Yeah, my formatting sucks I know I know. But I can't change it *Curses computer and then beats it* because my comp sucks so please bear with me.. and I'll attempt...yet again.. to change my formatting. Yea, I hate character developement but I am forced to do that. Another reminder that this story will jump around over a 12 month time period and yeah I want you guys who read and review to be brutally honest. I was going translate all of Hamlet's famous speech into french but since I'm only in french 3 I don't want to have to think hard about old english meanings. So instead I'll just do the first line and assume that you'll go read the soliloqy yourself. Uhh, any songs that I use, ie the characters singing or just playing in the background I will acknowledge at the end of the chapter and yeah. I love all of you guys who have read my story so far and reviewed it!!!! Trust me there a few twists and turns to come yet....*Grins evilly* Oh yeah another thing.. you'll see this a lot. ------- which basically will separate the paragraphs or just make the dialogue easier to read since my formatting scrunches everything together.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ November 19th  
  
The first couple weeks of school passed quickly for Hitomi and she was very close to everyone (minus Allen). The first practice for Jane Eyre went by without a hitch. The next day was a different story however. Over the last week everyone had been measured and costumed except for Van, and to make that better both the costume manager and the assistant manager were gone. Hitomi told her assistant director (Because if you remember she is the student director) to take over while she took Van to the costume shop to make alterations to his costume.--------  
  
"You're causing all this trouble." Hitomi winked at Van as she pined the hem on his marron velvet pants.----------  
  
"Arms out." She pulled out a measuring tape and commenced to measure his arm span, chest, and stomach. She could feel his muscles flex underneath her touch. Van on the otherhand wasn't as relaxed as Hitomi seemed. He began to sweat. The closer she was to him physically the more nervous he got. He wasn't sure if it was because of his wings, that blasted glowing pendant of hers, or just hormones.--------  
  
"Arms down, be back in a minute. I'll find you a shirt and overcoat to match those pants." As soon as Hitomi got out of view she let out a whoosh of air and her hands were shaking. She didn't understand why she was nervous. She wasn't sure if it was her pendant, his eyes, or just hormones that was driving her to be like this. Her search was successful and she soon came back holding a simple white tuxedo shirt and a matching velvet jacket with tails. She tossed them to Van under-hand.--------  
  
" Here, put these on and come back so I can see how they fit." She ordered in a stern voice.--------  
  
"Yes sir!" Van saluted her and goose-stepped away. Hitomi slumpted into a chair. She brought her hands up to her face and smoothed them over her taunt ivory skin. Her eyes closed for a second and when she opened them a pair of startling ember-like eyes were inches from hers.---------  
"Good you're up." Van smiled as he drew back. He stood with his feet apart and his hands on his hips.------"You like?"-----He turned around slowly. Hitomi's mouth watered a little. Van's lean toned body was accent by the slim cut pants and jacket, the color also matched his eyes and enhanced his skin tone.------  
  
"Oui, je l'aime. (I like it.) You look great." She flashed him a toothy grin. Van decided to have a little fun so he started singing in a falsetto voice and got down on one knee.--------  
  
"Put on a brand new shirt, I'll do anything baby if you say that you love me..." Hitomi burst out laughing. Van scooped her up in his arms and started twirling around. -----  
  
"Ack Van!...I'm going to...puke..." Hitomi laughed at first but then started to look sickly. Van stopped and stood her upright. She wobbled a little then covered her mouth with her hand and ran to the bathroom.-------  
  
"Opps." And that was all that Van said. Hitomi emerged from the bathroom looking and feeling better.--------  
  
"Van Fanel, I'm going to kill you." She hollered. Van's head perked up and he grinned from ear to ear.--------  
  
"You'll have to catch me first." He shouted back. Van stripped the jacket and shirt off in one fluid motion. Hitomi rounded the corner just as Van was engulfed in a pillar of light. She brought her arms up to shield her eyes from the light. When the light disappeared he was midair flapping his wings. Hitomi gasped and gaped at him. She felt her pendant burning through her shirt and scalding her skin. But she ignored it and slowly walked foreward. Van glided down and landed with a soft pad. He stretched his wings out. The glistened from the light coming through the window.------ ---  
  
"You can touch them if you want to." He offered. Hitomi was dumbfounded as she stroked his wing. A shiver went down both of their spines.-------  
  
"Hitomi!" Dilandau's high strung voice sounded from another room.----- --  
  
"In the costume shop." She yelled back still looking at Van and stroking his wings. Van closed his eyes and concentrated, his wings disappeared in a storm of feathers. Dilandau walked nonchalantly intto the room and froze when he saw Van with his shirt off and Hitomi within arms reach of him. Dilandau felt his heart slow down and grow cold like a fist of iron reached out and grabbed it. It ached. Hitomi shoved her hands in her pockets and dropped her gaze to the floor. Van blushed while he ran a calloused hand through his black hair.---------  
  
"It's not what it seems..." Hitomi started off but couldn't seem to finish.------  
  
Van chimed in, " Hai, she was just getting better measurements for my costume."--- Dilandau felt his heart start beating again.------  
  
"Oh." He looked around witha a puzzeld look on his face as he regarded the feathers.------"Then what's with all the feathers?"------  
  
Van's voice checked. This time Hiotmi answered.------ "Pillow fight, he had it coming. Except when I hit him the pillow imploded, curse my unnatural strength." She winked at Van. Dilandau was grinning.--------  
  
"So it's not what I thought," he mused in his head.------  
  
"Hey Van?" Dilandau tried to act as casual as possible. Van took his gaze from the floor and over to the red-eyed man.------  
  
"Hai?" Van was confused by Dilandau. He couldnt' figure out why Dilandau was so nervous. Dilandau's attention shifted briefly to Hitomi who was picking up the discarded clothing across the room.-----  
  
"Could I talk to you for a minute?" He blurted out.-----  
  
Van scratched his head and replied his deep tenor voice. "Sure." Dilandau made the motion for Van to follow him out of the room. Van stopped when he reached the door.----  
  
"Hold on D, forgot something." He ran to Hitomi who was folding the clothes and hugged her from behind. She felt comfy in his strong arms and leaned back. Letting go of her after a moment he grabbed the tuxedo shirt and slipped it on.------  
  
"Man, she smells good, feels good, and looks good. Is there anything not good about this girl?" He thought as he buttoned up the shirt.----  
  
"Be back." He jogged back out to Dilandau who was taping his foot with obvious impatience. Hitomi just shook her head and sat back down in the wicker chair for a nap.-----  
  
"Sorry about that," Van said as he walked up to Dilandau, "what'd you want to talk about?"------- "Actually I have a favor to ask." Dilandau's voice cracked.------- "Okay, what?" Van still couldn't guess what he wanted and what it had to do with himself.---- "You're close to Hitomi and all..."------ "Hai, I am even though she's been here a couple of weeks." Things started to dawn unto Van.-----"No, he can't. Can he?" His head screamed.---- --  
  
"Could you ask her out for me?" Dilandau felt so relieved after he got that off of his chest. Hitomi was all that he could think about, her smiling face, her graceful habits and her gentle spirit. He had been able to get a little bit closer to her but she shyed away. He just wanted to have her and hold her and to tell her how much she meant to him. His dreams were even plagued by her. She was always laughing and spinning round and round until a column of light overtook her and spirited her away.-----  
  
"Yo! D!" Van snapped his fingers infront of his dreamlike face.----- "Oh, gomen." He blinked his eyes and drifted back to reality.----- "I said I'll ask for you, but give me a couple days." Van couldn't believe what he was saying. But what could he say? That he himself wanted her. He saw the way Dilandau's face was after he asked. How could he let down a best friend? All he could hope was that Hitomi would say no, as cruel as that sounds.----- Dilandau's face lit up and he tackled Van, "Thanks man."------  
  
Van entered the costume shop and saw his precious angel sleeping in the chair. He sighed inwardly as he drew closer to Hitomi's sleeping form. He knelt so that he was eye level with her and started singing.------  
  
"You are so beautiful to me.." Tears welled up in his maroon eyes and his throat closed up. He left the room to go change back into his regular clothes. A innocent looking smile crept across Hitomi's face.------  
  
"So that's how he feels about me." She opened her eyes and danced around. Footsteps sounded, she dove back into her sleeping position. Back in his regular clothes Van shook her shoulder.-----  
  
"Hitomi, Hitomi."------ "Mmmm?" Hitomi faked waking up.------ "Do you always sleep when you have the chance?" He laughed from the pit of his stomach.----- "As a matter of fact I do." She poked him. Looking up into his eyes she tried to figure out what it was about him that intrigued her.----- "Want a ride?" Hitomi right away said yes. She wanted any chance to ride on the wings of an angel.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ November 20th--------  
  
Hitomi paced her room with Sora, Millerna, and Merle keeping watch over her.  
  
"He said he wanted to talk to me, and said that it was important." She stroked her chin. Sora shifted uncomfortably. Merle was the first to speak.- ----  
  
"You know, my opinion is that he's going to pop the question." Merle was a shrewd girl. But she also saw the things Hitomi didn't. Like the way Dilandau looked at her when she wasn't watching. The way he went out of his way to see her. Indeed she was jealous. Ever since she could remember she had a thing for that red-eyed pyro.But the question was what was Van going to talk to Hitomi about. Everyone seemed to like her. Van, Dilandau, and her every watching ever vigilant stalker Allen. Allen, fortunetly, knew to keep his distance from her. Merle knew her cousin was into Hitomi after the first day she came to Gaea High School. A wave of jealousy washed over Merle when she thought about Dilandau. A soft knock on the window interrupted everyone's thoughts. Van stood outside of the window in a pair a jeans and a beater. He had dark circles around his eyes and pallor claimed his face.------  
  
"Hey."------ "Hey." They stood facing each other. The girls left the room one by one, with Merle being the last.-----  
  
"You might want to sit down." Van gestured to the bed. She sat still focusing only on Van.---- "I've thought all night about this and I didn't get much sleep..." Hitomi cut Van off.-----  
  
"Yes I will!" ------ "No! No! Let me finish please Hitomi, let me speak uninterrupted." He pleaded by grabbing her hand and clasping it bewteen his hands. She swalloped a lump that was forming in her throat, she nodded next. In taking a sharp breath he asked, "Will you go out with Dilandau?"------  
  
Hitomi felt lightheaded, "Wha-what?" She stammered as she pulled her free hand up to her forehead.----- "Will you go out with him?" Van sounded desperate, desperate for what was the question.---- "I don't know. Why isn't he asking me this?" She stood up and moved away from Van's grasp. She started to pace once again with her eyes cast down upon the floor. Van watched her as he hazel eyes calculated what he just told her.------ "Why?" She stopped infront of Van and faced him. "Why?" Her eyes pleaded for her. Van rubbed his face with a cold hand.----- "Because he's afraid too." He sighed his deep tenor voice was about to crack, he just couldn't stand this. Vertigo claimed him and he fainted. (To many times the girl faints so when I vowed to write a fanfic I vowed to make the guy faint for once ha ha!)  
  
"Van!" She caught his lumbering form in her arms. She heaved his lean body onto her bed. Looking down at him she ruffled his hair and smiled a thin smile. A little bit of color had returned to his face.---- "Poor guy." She commented as she walked to her door and opened it. Three girls proceeded to fall on her.----- "Hitomi-chan!" They cried in unison.---- "Ahhhh, get off, get off." She screamed. Merle, Millerna, and Sora scrambled off of Hitomi. Hitomi craned her neck and arched her back to relieve the ache they game her. All of them regarded Hitomi while fidgeting. Merle's self control broke.------  
  
"What'd he say?"----- "Did you say yes?"------ "When's the wedding?" Sora blurted out. She gasped and covered her mouth while a bit of faint blush came to her face. Hitomi glanced back at Van's unconscious body.When she turned back all three were crowded around her giggling.-------  
  
"He asked me out for Dilandau." Hitomi ran a hand through her hair, Merle gaped at her.----- "My Dilandau?" She asked increduously.------ "Hai, but I thought you didn't like him." Hitomi shrugged.----- "I don't, it's just odd that he asked you out this way. That's all." She covered her story quite well, and Hitomi seemed convinced.------ "What'd you say?" Millerna reiterated.------ "I said I didn't know. Heck I felt like I was going to faint and then he did." She glanced back a second time at him, he sure did look peaceful laying there with the sun shining down on his sleeping form.------- "OoOo, I thing out Hitomi-chan likes Van." Millerna bubbled. Hitomi quirked an eyebrow at her.------ "Well if I do I have no clue about it." Decided that talking about Van while he was out cold on her bed wasn't the best idea. So Merle set up a water bucket system so that when Van sat up he'd be doused in frigid water. They crept out of the room and sat in the hallway.----- "You realize my bed is going to be soaked." Merle just grinned.----- "Oh but then you get to see Van all wet. Not that he isn't when he's around you." She gave Hitomi a huge wink.----- "Ha, ha ha,...not."----- Sora was distand during this conversation, her thoughts drifted to Folken once again. Having him for a teacher was hard on her. Every time she left that class she was in tears.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Sora, wait." Folken closed a warm hand around her wrist. "Wait, I want to talk to you..." He pleaded. Sora looked up into his sienna eyes and then looked away.------  
  
"I can't do this Folken, I just can't." Her voice wavered and she began to tremble. Folken wrapped her in his arms, holding tightly onto her frail figure. She was crying on his chest and tears began to form in his eyes. He buried his face into her soft, white hair and began to sob. After a little bit his sobs stopped.----- "Will you feel better if you see my wings?" He whispered huskily into her ear. She pulled back and nodded her head. He wiped away her tears and stood back. Making sure that no one was around he whipped off his shirt and smock. Soon the room exploded with raven colored feathers. Sora sniffled a little but she was beaming. He held out his scuptled arms to her and she ran into them. His four black wings enclosed them into their own private world..------ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Sora spoke to herself inside of her mind, "Folken's way of saying I love you was always to show me his wings." She grinned, "So he still loves me."-- -----  
  
"Earth to Sora?!" Millerna waved a hand infront of Sora's bemused face.----- "Gomen."------- "It's okay," Millerna chidded her.------ "What am I going to do guys?" Hitomi whinned.------- Sora looked at Hitomi, "Say yes, take a chance, live a little." All eyes turned to Sora and stared.----- "I'm sorry what? Did Sora just give her opinion? Is it finally true that our little Sora has snapped out of her depression?" Merle asked in a sarcastic voice while sticking a finger in her ear to clean it. Sora blushed. She opened her mouth with a witty repartee ready but soon a yawn followed by a drowned out scream came from Hitomi's bedroom.------  
  
"Merle! Hitomi! Sora! Millerna!" He bellowed from the other side of the door. Everyone but Hitomi dashed down the stairs and out the back door. The door slammed open and Van lurched out dripping wet and flushed. He eyed the hallway wildly before he spotted Hitomi. He grinned evilly.------- "You're so going down Kanzaki." Hitomi smiled at the challenge.------ "Oh, look Van's all wet." She winked and then took down the stairs and down the street. Van struggled to keep the same distance as he slid all over.------ "Screw this." He let his wings fly out and took flight. He soon caught up to Hitomi and made her "pay" by dunking her in someone's pool.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
end of chapter 4.. uh yeah excuse all typos but I really didn't want to put it through grammar and spell check I really wanted to update it. And yeah...songs used... I want you to want me off of the 10 things I hate about you soundtrack. You are so beautiful.. can't remember the guy who wrote it...but yeah.. i'll hopefully update next weeked i'm too busy during the week to update so yeah.. keep on reading!!!!! and reviewing~!!!! 


	5. Chapter 5 Answers, Christmas parties, an...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Escaflowne or any of its characters so yeah.  
  
Author's notes: Yea again I say I know my formatting sucks and I wish I could put them into paragraphs at times, but the fact is the last chapter was mainly dialogue. I promise to try my best on the formatting but if it sucks blame the computers *glares at comp* Sorry it's been a little bit too, I just am so busy during the weeks that I can only update on weekends so bear with me here peeps! Just a warning I aiming for about 30 chapters here so if things get long and drawn out I could just put smaller chapters in. Keep on reading and reviewing!!  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ November 21st  
"She said yes?!" Dilandau clutched Van's shoulders so his knuckles turned white.  
  
"Hai, she said yes." Dilandau brought his shaggy haired friend into a bone-breaking hug. "Dude you're awesome."  
  
"Dil..." Van wheezed.  
  
"Hai?"  
  
"..air..." Van whispered close to blacking out.  
  
"Oh, gomen!" He let go of Van and watched his friend pant for air. Van was crouched over with his hands on his knees letting his hair hide his face. Van was happy for Dilandau in a weird way, but he wished that it wasn't Hitomi.  
  
"Your first date is Saturday, I already asked for you." Dilandau was fixed to his spot. His mouth hung open and he resembled a fish gasping for air through its gills.  
  
"Saturday?" His red eyes widened. "Hai." Van spoke in a calm voice, willing himself to keep the emotions that were inside, well inside. Dilandau said a hasty thanks and ran out of the room to get ready and to make plans. Van sighed and slid down the wall to the ground. He thought of Hitomi and started to sing a song. (This is an original composition by me...so yeah don't steal it please.!) (The title is "Anything") Van's deep tenor voice rang out through the room.  
  
"Can't you see what you mean to me?~Deep down inside~You feel the pain too~Can't seem to stop thinking about you~When you walk right through the door~Dripping with sin you walk in~You don't know your face in a mirror~You're hollow inside~Almost~You put on a friend face to the world~But who are you fooling~ I'm 6 feet under and all I see is you..." His voice cracked but he continued on.  
  
" 'Cause I don't mean anything to you~anything to you~anything to you~not since we've been through~I don't mean anything to you~anything to you~anything to you~anything..to..you..~You look right through me~I'm invisible to you and the world~ I shout and I wave and I cry in silent reverie~Walking down the busy streets of life~I fall down~You're no longer there to pick me up~Don't you know I love you baby~Don't you know I need you~ Nothing is upside right anymore~Not to me~Since you don't know me anymore...." Tears stung Van's eyes but he had to finish the song, he had to hang on and fight the weakness inside of him.  
  
"'Cause I don't mean anything to you~anything to you~anything to you~Not since we've been through~I don't mean anything to you~anything to you~anything to you~ anything to.. you..~As I lay on my back~Looking up to the starless sky~I wonder~If I mean anything to you~anything to you~anything to you~anything to you~since we've been through~If I mean anything to you~anything to you~anything to you~anything...to... you." Van collapsed and wept into his arms. "So this is what it feels like to give into weakness." He muttered.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One month later, December 22nd (and one day)  
  
"Merle-chan, please." Dilandau pleaded.  
  
"Fine, fine I'll help you." She responded warily. Dilandau hugged her.  
  
"Thanks, I really really need help planning the whole one month annivseraire thing."  
  
"No problem." 'It's not like I have anyone for myself.' She thought in mental disgust. Dilandau was so happy, she didn't want to ruin that. Hitomi and he could be seen through the hallways holding hands and cuddling like any other couple, almost like Yukari and Amano. But Hitomi had been a little reluctant at first, she relaxed after a week of Dilandau burning random figurines for her in Physics. Merle raked a hand through her fuschia hair as Dilandau dragged her up to his room for planning. "  
  
"Hitomi had better not hurt him or else she'll become my personal scratching post." Her mind seethed as she wore a malign smile.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ December 23rd  
  
With the news that Dilandau was dropping out of French class Millerna was left without a partner. Mme Flowne put her with Amano and decided for Hitomi to do a monologue of her choice. Millerna crept into the library to see Hitomi slumped over a gigantic pile of books reading intently. The light coming in through the window hit the dust particles in the air so you could see the air circulation taking place. Millerna sauntered up to the hunched over girl.  
  
"Choose something yet?" Millerna asked. Hitomi held up a hand for silence.  
  
"Almost." She flipped the pages and closed the book. "Got it." She rubbed her strained hazel eyes.  
  
"Qu'est-ce que c'est?(What is it?)" Millerna quipped.  
  
"Hamlet." She opened her eyes and smiled.  
  
"You are a person of few words Hitomi Kanzaki." Laughed Millerna. Hitomi turned her head to look at her friend. She could not figure out why no guy asked her out, for she was gorgeous, drop dead gorgeous. She had long, wavy, saffron hair that cascaded down to her stomach. Her eyes were an icy blue color which is rarely found. A delicate nose and full mouth were placed perfectly on a heart-shaped face. Millerna had the figure, the poise, the grace, but she did not have a guy. "Yes I am." Hitomi stretched her arms to the ceiling and yawned. A pair of warm callused hands caught her wrists. Instantly, Hitomi sent out a low kick at the knees. The hands let go and she turned to see who it was. Van stood leaning against the bookcase with a smirk on his handsome face.  
  
"Too slow Hitomi."  
  
"I'll show you slow Fanel." She punched him in the face. (My my Hitomi's a little violent, but it's kind of a playful violent.)  
  
"Ahh.." He rubbed his pointy noise with his hand. "Didn't think you'd hit me there." He whined in a muffled voice. Hitomi sat back down and turned her chair to face him. Millerna winked at Van and left to go find a "book". Hitomi felt her heart race as Van assumed his original position against the bookcase. The space in between them was only about a foot.  
  
"Folken wanted me to ask your mother and you to come over for Christmas dinner. So, you guys have anything planned?"  
  
"Hm..," She stroked her chin, "I don't know Van." She played with a thought or two. Van got down on his knees and clasped his hands together in front of her.  
  
"Pretty please with sugar on top?" He gave Hitomi the best puppy dog eyes his maroon eyes could muster and he got his lip to quiver. Hitomi burst out laughing.  
  
"Yes, on two conditions. One you owe me a fight. Two you never do that again." Van lunged forward and wrapped his arms around her stomach, pulling her into a hug. Hitomi was stunned and just sat there wondering what the crap he was doing.  
  
"Uh Van?" Her pendant was faintly glowing. (Aren't you just getting sick of hearing about that stupid pendant of hers? he he he.)  
  
"Hai?"  
  
"Could you let go here, I have to use the bathroom." She blushed.  
  
"Gomen." Van let go and stood out of her way. Of course Hitomi didn't actually have to go, she went to find Millerna who was peeping through a crack in the books watching them the whole time. Hitomi lightly kicked her butt. Millerna glared at her.  
  
"You're impossible Hitomi!!" She exclaimed in a whisper. Hitomi just rolled her eyes and then went on to the bathroom.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A mysterious phone call.  
  
"I must have her." "And what do you intend for me to do?" "I don't know, something though I must have her." "All right, I will think about it. Good-bye." "Good-bye."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ December 25th The Fanel household  
  
Van stood in front of his mirror shirtless, while trying to figure out what to wear. He had to dress up because Mrs.Kanzaki and Hitomi were coming over. The light bouncing off of the mirror played tricks on his mind and made him seem paler than usual. He held up another sweatshirt and dress shirt combination before he finally made up his mind. A simple, black, form-fitting sweater with a white collar shirt underneath. Slowly, he buttoned up the dress shirt but left the top two buttons undone. You could see his shoulder muscles move with ease as he reached for the sweater and pulled it over his head. After getting it on he ruffled his hair a little so that one thin group of hair cut across his face. He sighed at the reflection in his mirror. So yeah, a lot of girls thought he was hot. Yeah so what about that, the one that really mattered seemed indifferent and just dumped her boyfriend of two months. He felt happy but then again he felt sad for Dilandau. A song came over on Van's stereo. "One more time and you'll be dead...at least I think that's what they said...forty days won't break a man it was a bullet in his head.... there's something in the... something in the way you were..the pain so wrong my friend revolution...revolution man imagine all the people...." The singer's scruffy voice screamed. Van stared at the stereo as if it just came alive. "Listen while I load my gun he said to me...something 'bout a chosen one it's comin' back to me.. watch him while I taste the sun he said to me something 'bout a chosen one... you'll never be ...one last time your medicine swallow hard and take it in.. Lucy's in the sky again trippin' on her diamonds..." Van plopped down on his bed and listened to the last line of the song. "...you'll never be..eeee...." "Oh that's a real morale booster there now..." Van spoke to himself.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Same time Kanzaki household  
  
Hitomi eyed the dress that Millerna had chosen for her. She nibbled on her bottom lip. The dress was a pale mint green color with a princess V neck. The silk straps draped around her upper arm. From her mid thigh down to the floor the dress had a slit on each side. The dress clung to her every curve and accented the slope of her shoulders. If Van did not like this well then, she would not have any idea of what he liked! She sat down and gingerly slipped on a pair of chunky high heels that matched her dress. The only piece of jewelry she wore was her pendant again. "Wonder if he'll like it." She mused. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The four of them sat at a long square dining room table. Everyone but Hitomi was stuffing their faces.  
  
"Aren't you hungry hunny?" Her mother glanced at her plate with concern. Hitomi shook her head.  
  
"I need some air, excuse me." She slid outside and sat down on the porch swing barely able to keep her thoughts from straying to the last person she wanted to think about.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Flashback  
  
"Hitomi, please tell me what's wrong!" Dilandau's voice rang through her head.  
  
"I can't. I don't know what's wrong but something is. I ignored it at first but I can't now." She pushed away from Dilandau's soft embrace. His eyes started to tear up.  
  
"What do you mean?" His voice was barely above a whisper. Hitomi rubbed her temples and shut her eyes.  
  
"It's over between us, I can't do this anymore to myself." She whispered as she propped herself against the door frame.  
  
"Oh." A lump started to form in his throat.  
  
"You're a great guy and all, but I'm not the one for you." She made sure she made eye contact on that last phrase. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~end flashback  
  
In a hasty move Dilandau's parents decided to move to Scotland near where her uncle lived. They left yesterday and Hitomi didn't have the heart to see him off. Merle wasn't talking to her or anyone at that matter. She sighed. The night was warm and the wind stirred her hair. Hitomi's mother came outside.  
  
"It's late hunny, I'm turning in. Don't stay up too late."  
  
"I won't." She kissed her mother's cheek. Folken soon poked his head out the front door.  
  
"Hey."  
  
"Hey." Folken nodded to her then ran across the street to Sora's with a present in hand and a smile on his face. Hitomi grinned, she could only imagine what those two got each other. Van soon made his way out onto the porch and sat next to Hitomi. He wrapped his arm around her small waist and let her lean on him.  
  
"Come on, let it out Kanzaki." Van commanded in a soft voice while staring forward. Hitomi stared ahead as well.  
  
"Let what out?"  
  
"The fact that you actually have feelings for him." She turned her attention towards Van. She had a look of confusion and pure enlightenment all in one on her face.  
  
"But I never did. I didn't figure that out for a whole month." The pair sat in silence with Hitomi cradled against Van. He hummed a melody in her ear. "The guy who put his hands in you, has got nothing to do with me. And the bruises that you feel will heal and I hope you come around 'cause we're missing you. And you, you used to speak so easy but you're afraid to talk to me..e.e.e..."  
  
"It's like walking with the wounded..." Hitomi chimed in. They laughed. It was good to have his old Hitomi back. A mischievous glint came to her hazel eyes.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"You're psycho." Van yelled at her.  
  
"Hey you agreed to this." She retorted back. Both were in a neighbor's pool stripped down to their underwear. Van trying his best not to go over to Hitomi and kiss her, pushed her head underwater. Hitomi's arms and legs thrashed. Voice's from the owner's house turned Van's head and brought Hitomi out of the water. They scrambled out of the pool and grabbed their clothes. Before the lights came on the two were in the air.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The following month the production of "Jane Eyre" went by flawlessly. Hitomi had to take Dilandau's role of Mr. Mason but that was no big deal. February soon descended upon them all and boyfriend could soon feel the pressure of Valentine's Day come upon them. Like an ominous cloud overtaking a golfer on the greens and then sending lightning down to see if it could hit the golfer. So the scramble for plans made all men jumping. And in the scramble a new couple emerged in Hitomi's group. Dryden and Millerna. The two were rarely seen without each other. Merle, still, wasn't talking to anyone even Dryden, her brother. Seems she really did love Dilandau. Allen kept his distance from the group and left them alone eventually.  
  
~~~~~~~~~In Hitomi's French class~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Et notre presentation dernier. (And our last presentation.) Mlle Hitomi Kanzaki." Hitomi dragged her weary frame up to the front. She spent the whole three day break rehearsing her presentation. Van said she would do fine, and she hoped she would do fine too.  
  
"Etre ou n'etre pas, (to be or not to be.)(( I wasn't sure to keep it in the infinitive form or not so i'll put the one does this for too.) On est ou on n'est pas, (to be or not to be)..." (Due to the fact that I really didn't feel like translation the whole speech by Hamlet I skip ahead to the next part.)  
  
Hitomi breathed heavily as she plopped back down into her seat. Van mouthed "Good job." To her. A sudden knock on the door drew the whole class's attention away from Mme Flowne. Folken stepped into the room and whispered to Mme Flowne. She nodded her head and called for Hitomi to go out in the hall with Mr.Fanel. She entered the hall and closed the door behind her. Folken started out of the conversation with some discomfort.  
  
"I have some bad news Hitomi..." He trailed off.  
  
"What is it? What's wrong?" Hitomi had no clue why she would be called out of class for a little bit of bad news. But she had no clue what was in store for her. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ end chapter 5  
  
Heheheh cliff hanger...sorry!!! *ducks the random objects being thrown at her.* oh yeah songs mentioned in the story. 1."Anything" an original composition by moi (so don't steal it!!!!) 2."Revolution Man" by The Union Underground off of their cd "...an education in rebellion" 3. "Wounded" by Third Eye Blind off of their cd "Blue"  
  
so yeah i'll update soon I just don't feel like editing more today...hehehe...and well yeah.. read and review please!! be brutally honest and yeah if you don't' like the chapters I promise they will start getting better this is just one of the transition chapters...hehe.. bye !!! ~wings of light~ 


	6. chapter 6 not so good endings to things,...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Escaflowne or any of the characters in it. This is my own work of my deranged and demented mind.  
  
Author's notes: Don't hate my formatting. And don't hate me for this chapter!!!*ducks and covers*. Oh yeah this is a very short chapter...things haven't been flowing the best lately or the fact that I lack the time to write more..hehehehe...  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (this chapter is the continued portion of the last chapter)  
  
Folken grasped her hand in his and squeezed it before he spoke.  
  
"Your mom was hit by a car today. She was walking to lunch and the guy didn't even stop, the jerk didn't stop. She's barely holding on in the hospital but she's calling for you to come." Hitomi bit her tongue as tears began to sting her deep hazel eyes. She looked away.  
  
"She's dying..." Folken rubbed her arm.  
  
"No, no she, she can't!" Her voice grew hoarse and she began to gasp for air. Her body convulsed almost to the point of falling to the ground.  
  
"Come on Hitomi," Folken tugged at her head, "we'll go see her now." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The hospital came into sight. It was a stark, unmoving, gray block that towered above the skyline. The sight of it gave little comfort to Hitomi, it didn't seem like a place of healing but a place of death and the harsh reality of the world. Hitomi's face buried itself back into her hands to muffle her cries. This couldn't be happening to her, not to her mom. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (In her mother's room)  
  
She crept to her mother's side and clutched a pale hand.  
  
"Mom?" She pleaded. Mrs.Kanzaki turned her head towards her daughter. A little light shone in her black eyes and her pupils dilated a bit more.  
  
"Hitomi, I want you to know," she paused to breathe, "that I love you hunny and that everything is going to be left to you." Hitomi brushed her mother's auburn hair out of her chalk-white face.  
  
"No, don't say that mom you're going to live. You need to, I need you too." She babbled frantically.  
  
"No dear, it's time for me to go. I want you to move in with Folken and Van. You'll be happy there." Mrs.Kanzaki coughed. Hitomi was crying once again.  
  
"Don't leave me mom, mom I love you!" She flung herself over her mother's hospital bed. Her mother brought a frail hand up and stroked Hitomi's sobbing head.  
  
"Good-bye Hitomi-chan I love you." Mrs.Kanzaki said with a delirious voice.  
  
"I love you too." Hitomi sobbed, slowly she felt her mother's soul leave the body and drift off into the afterlife. Folken who had been standing in the shadows pulled her off the body and let the sobbing girl cry on him.  
  
"She's gone." Hitomi whimpered. Folken just held her until her lamentations withered away. Glancing up Hitomi stared at her mother's empty shell-of-a-body. She broke away from his gentle grip and crossed the room to her mother. Taking two fingers she brought the opaque eyelids down over her mother's raven eyes. Just when Hitomi thought she could cry no more, new tears sprang into her eyes. Sinking to the floor Hitomi wept for her mother. The floor was cold, hard, and implacable to her needs for comfort. Her body heaved until her back was in pain. Ah, the excruciating pain ricocheted through her body and caused her to lie down upon the floor. She cried out for her mother before oblivion overtook her and forced her consciousness into submission.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The funeral  
  
The wind was harsh and chilled as the casket lowered slowly into the ground. The attendants' eyes were red-rimmed and tired. Hitomi and the Fanels took up the shovels to pile the dirt on the casket. It had been two weeks since her mother passed away. Already, her belongings were moved into the Fanel household and everything else she didn't keep were auctioned off or given to relatives. Hitomi shoveled the last bit of dirt onto the grave and knelt down in front of the headstone.  
  
"Good-bye mother." She whispered. Head down she rose and trudged away into the cruel world. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Feb. 14th The Fanel household  
  
The light poured through the large bay window in Hitomi's new room. Hitomi lay on her back staring up at the sky blue ceiling. It was eight am on a Saturday morning and she couldn't fall back asleep. She could hear Van next door murmuring something about pancakes in his sleep. She sighed a little. Suddenly she got an idea. Jumping out of bed she brushed her hair and ran downstairs in her blue tank top and plaid boxers. She was still trying to get used to living with all guys. The house was so quiet this early in the morning unlike when her mom was alive. Grinning like a Cheshire cat, she entered the kitchen to begin her evil deed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Someone was in his room, he sniffed the air. He popped his head out from underneath the massive pile of covers and scanned the room. Pitch black, he could not see a thing. Then a flash of light, he brought his arm up to his face.  
  
"Ahhhh....." Van groaned.  
  
"Bonjour sunshine." Hitomi pounced on Van and ruffled his hair. Van grabbed her and flipped the position so he was on top. Hitomi's smile turned to fear quickly.  
  
"She smells good, like rain." He thought as he leaned in to inhale her scent. Van's muscles bulged out of his arms and shoulders since he was propping himself up on them. Van brought his face closer to hers, his raven hair tickled her forehead, she giggled nervously. Hitomi felt like her head was about to burst, his eyes flared with an emotion she couldn't read. Her chest rose sharply and her eyes held his steadily. His lips could almost touch hers, he could almost taste her. Hitomi closed her eyes and Van followed in the same manner. His body was pushing her's into the mattress, the delicious weight of him made her dizzy. She inhaled his musky scent and licked her lips. A knock came at the door and Van leapt off the bed. Hitomi's eyes flew open.  
  
"Yea?" His voice cracked which made Hitomi smile and giggle as she sat up.  
  
"Just making sure you're up." Folken laughed as he walked on.  
  
"I should go." Hitomi stood up and started walking to the door reluctantly.  
  
"Hitomi?" Van ran a hand through his messy hair. She stopped at the door with her hand on the knob.  
  
"Hai?" She turned to face him.  
  
"Nevermind." Van dropped his gaze to the floor. She left the room not knowing what to think. Van almost kissed her, or at least she thought he was going to. She closed the door softly and headed back down to the kitchen. But that wasn't what was bothering her. It was how she felt about the fact that he almost kissed her. She couldn't figure out that funny feeling in the pit of her stomach, was it because she was nauseous at the thought or did she feel something else towards him. Sadly, Hitomi knew she wouldn't be able to figure that one out for a while. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Van groaned as the door closed and flopped back on his bed.  
  
"What's gotten into me?" He whispered. He, Van Fanel, almost kissed her, Hitomi Kanzaki. "Oh I'm going mad," he thought, "or I already am. This is great the one thing I want so much I can't bother to seize the moment to take it." His nose soon picked up another scent. "Pancakes?" He quirked an eyebrow.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Hitomi stood hunched over the stove flipping pancakes like a pro. Van came bounding down the steps and skidded into the kitchen still just in his boxers. Hitomi didn't notice before that all he was wearing was a pair of green boxers, she blushed. She could see every single scuptled muscle move with precise timing. Shaking her head she turned back to the pancakes. Van's mouth was salivating.  
  
"MMMmmm pancakes!" His mind focused only on them.  
  
"Hungry?" Hitomi caught his attention.  
  
"You made all of these?" Van's eyes bulged as he regarded the girl and her handiwork.  
  
"Yup, I heard you whimpering something about pancakes in your sleep so you better get eating.." Soon Van was wolfing down pancakes almost inhaling them. Folken joining them after a few minutes and commenced the contest of eating the most pancakes in a minute.  
  
30 minutes later~~~  
  
"Can't move...too full." Van and Folken both whined.  
  
"Aww, poor babies. In that case, dibs on the shower." She winked and left the room.  
  
"Hey that's not cool!" Van struggled to get up and lumbered after Hitomi. The door was closed when he reached the bathroom. Images of what Hitomi looked like without clothes on plagued his imagination. He clutched his head and cried out. Folken came walking up the stairs nonchalantly. Seeing his infuriated brother he chuckled.  
  
"Word of advice, try not to thing about her naked too much. It will only make you more desperate." He walked off into his room and closed the door. Van sat there with his mouth open in a perfect O. "How? Did-? What the-?" Van couldn't seem to finish a sentence. He sat by the bathroom door until Hitomi emerged wet-haired and clean. She smiled down at Van before she went on to her room only wearing a towel. He stared at her slender legs.  
  
"AHHHHHH!!!THIS IS SO CRUEL!" His mind screamed. He dragged his sorry carcass into the bathroom. Stripping off his boxers he jumped into the shower and tried to drown out his dirty thoughts with scalding hot water. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
end chapter 6 


	7. Chapter 7 a mysterious phone call, suici...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Escaflowne or any of the characters in it. This is the works of my own demented and deranged mind.  
  
Author's notes: I get a little sadistic to the characters and well I tend to make them suffer so don't hate me. I know my formatting sucks so deal with me here. Thanks much and thank you all to those word read and review my story.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ February 14th Valentine's Day  
  
A phone call.  
  
"We have a problem."  
  
"Another?"  
  
"The mother..."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"...was killed."  
  
"That's not a problem."  
  
"No?"  
  
"No, all is going as planned you will have her soon enough."  
  
"Good."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
She checked the bathroom door, locked and barricaded. The tile floor was cool against her tan skin, she shivered as she sat down. The razors were to the right of her and gleamed under the fake fluorescent light. The whole room was given an unreal look to it. She could see herself in the mirror, she looked frail and like a crack addict going through withdrawal. Circles encased her eyes and her usual glowing skin was encased in a sickly pallor. She had barely eaten in days, depression and fatigue were beginning to take their toll on her disease ridden brain.  
  
"It's now or never," she thought. Her petite hand gingerly picked up the razor. The skin on her wrist sliced open with ease when she brought the razor across it. The cut was shallow but it gave her a feeling of control, that she was the master of her life and not some supernatural power from the heavens above. In this world she felt out of place for some reason and she lost the person she only really loved, the only one that understood her pain and suffering. She didn't feel the pain, how could she feel it when her life was pain. She brought the razor across both wrists several times more. Blood had begun to drip onto the lime colored tile. She felt free, the razor dropped and clattered on the floor.  
  
"Free," she whispered before she blacked out. ~~~Hours later~~~  
  
Blood covered the floor and soaked into her flimsy clothing. Her skin was covered with dry blood and cuts.  
  
"Merle?" Dryden's voice called from the other side of the door. Merle stirred and opened her fierce sienna eyes.  
  
"Merle are you in there?" He tried the door and shook it. Merle did not move or speak. Maybe if she stayed silent her twin brother would leave.(Sorry I didn't mention that before but Merle and Dryden are twins)  
  
"Let me in!" He bellowed. Hearing no movement and seeing blood under the door, Dryden flung his body against the door shaking it in its frame. Wood splintered and flew and he pounded into the door over and over. The door gave way and was flung to the side on its hinges. The chair blocking the door flew forward a foot or so. Dryden's wild chestnut hair flew back as he rushed forward to his sister. His hands clutched her shoulders and shook her.  
  
"Merle? Merle? Are you okay? Can you hear me?" Dryden swallowed. This time Merle responded.  
  
"Help me," she fainted again. Dryden scooped up his bloody sister and set her in the white porcelain bathtub. He looked at the floor after he set her down.  
  
"So much blood." He thought. Dryden dashed out of the bathroom to find a mop and bucket. Returning as quickly as he could he began to clean the floor. It took him an hour to scrub the dried blood out of the white grout. Merle came to after he had finished.  
  
"You won't tell will you?" She asked in a child-like daze. He shook his head.  
  
"Nai, not if you promise not to do it again."  
  
"I won't." She shifted her position in the cramped tub and curled up on her side. Dryden reached out for a towel to wipe the caked blood off his sister. The cold towel gently rubbed her skin, she winced slightly when he touched the cuts.  
  
"This is going to take a while." He thought. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ March 1st "So what if I was your god?" The lead singer wailed in-between the guitar riffs. Van glanced down at her and frowned.  
  
"Get up Hitomi."  
  
"So come on, come on, come on get up, get up, so come on, come on, come on get up, get up south Texas deathride..." Whispered the singer while the tubular distortion hummed. Hitomi propped her elbows up and grimaced.  
  
"I said get up Kanzaki! You wanted a fight and you said for me not to go easy on you, so get up!" He was yelling at her, and actually meaning it. That was the first time he actually yelled at her. The singer whispered as he towered over her frowning.  
  
"...so come on, come on, come on get up, get up, so come on, come on, come on get up, get up..."  
  
Van's patience was growing thin. It was bad enough he had to live with her and be close to her but now she's wimping out like this.  
  
"I don't want to be in a room longer with her than I have to." He spat mentally.  
  
"SOUTH TEXAS DEATHRIDE YA MOTHER F***!" Van growled and kicked the boombox off the table. He enjoyed the smashing sound it made when it hit the floor. He turned his attention back to Hitomi who was quivering in fear on the floor. His eyes were smoldering.  
  
"We're done." He stalked away and slammed the door shut. Hitomi still propped on her elbows was stunned. Her bangs fell in her face covering her eyes.  
  
"What the crap is wrong with him?" She said shakily as she heaved herself off the ground. She limped to the sink and mirror across the room. He hadn't gone easy on her. A little bit of dried blood trailed from her pouty mouth and her body ached all over.  
  
"I've never seen him like that." She thought. The water was refreshing against her sweaty skin. She looked back into the mirror, a fresh drop of blood escaped a nostril and fell into the sink. The bright red drop dispersed into a slow river down to the drain.  
  
"Great, just great." She muttered while pressing her hand to her nose. She could hear his car peeling out of the parking lot.  
  
"Oh how wonderful!" Hitomi removed her hand and sniffed. She hoped there wouldn't be anymore blood. "Better get going." She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. She winced, she knew that she would be very sore tomorrow. It didn't take her long to make her way home and collapsed on her bed. The room next to her was silent, she couldn't' hear Van breathing. "Must be out still." She thought before sleep overtook her. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
She woke up in a daze. The clothes she wore were stiff from sweat and had a rancid smell coming from them. Her weary eyes scanned her room, something was different somehow. Pulling her head off of her comforter she saw a spot of dry blood where her nose was resting.  
  
"Great." She mumbled as she ran a hand through her short honey hair. A card with "Hitomi" in calligraphy lay on her pillow.  
  
"This wasn't here when I got home was it?" She mused. Hitomi reached out for it and whimpered in pain at her sore body. She tore open the envelope.  
  
~Hitomi~ ~Sorry about last night. I didn't mean to hurt you like that. You won't see me today, well, because I'll be working but I'll be back tonight. Late tonight so don't wait up for me.~ ~Van~  
  
Well now this was interesting, She shifted.  
  
"Wonder how long he'll be gone." The shrill ring of the phone startled Hitomi. She picked it up.  
  
"Hitomi-chan!" A voice resembling silver bells twinkled.  
  
"Sora-chan!" She gasped in excitement.  
  
"Have anything planned for today?"  
  
"Uh, no not exactly, why?"  
  
"Because..."  
  
"Because what?" She questioned.  
  
"I want you to spend the day with me at a spa!" She blurted out in one breath.  
  
"A spa? Sure why not." Hitomi shrugged, what harm could a trip to a spa do?  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The pair walked into the Spa's front room. Sora sauntered in with an air of confidence about her. While Hitomi shuffled in behind her with her head down so no one could make eye contact with her.  
  
Sora's point of view. "Oh this is too good. This idea better work!" She thought giddily. "We'll have a mud bath and a massage this afternoon." She requested with authority. Then she asked for two of the workers by name for the massage. She glanced over her shoulder at Hitomi. Hitomi had no clue what was in store for her today.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The mud bath was, pleasant possibly. It was a totally new thing for Hitomi. She was looking forward to the massage as she washed the mud off of her. Sora led her into a warm room with two beds for them to lie on. Both girls had a fluffy white towel wrapped around their middle. Hitomi felt odd since she wasn't wearing her necklace but she laid stomach side-down on the cot like bed. Sora followed in a similar suit. The square room was lit by two overhead lamps that gave out a warm glow. Two men entered the room wearing a white T-shirt and baggy white yoga pants. The first one turned towards them. Hitomi gasped, it was Folken! Folken waved at Hitomi and went over to Sora. He gave her a quick kiss before he began to massage her back. The other man walked towards Hitomi but kept his face lowered and his hands shoved in his pockets.  
  
"Van?!" She shrieked. Van plucked his head up and grinned from ear to ear. When he finally reached her, he made Hitomi lie back down on the bed. His deft hands started to work on her strained back. He leaned forward to whisper into her ear.  
  
"I'm sorry about yesterday. So hopefully this will make you feel better Hitomi-chan." His breath tickled the hair around her ears. His hands began to press harder into her knotted muscles, Hitomi moaned.  
  
"Man that feels so good." She closed her eyes and relaxed. He leaned in again.  
  
"Not as good as you look and feel." He whispered huskily. He kissed her ear and went back to massaging her back. Hitomi blushed uncontrollably. Van made sure that he got all the knots out as he worked his way from her shoulders to her lower back. Suddenly, he stopped. Hitomi opened her eyes and peered back at Van, who was biting his lower lip enough to make it bleed.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"I'm supposed to....ahh..." Folken glanced over and decided to speak for his little brother.  
  
"After he gets done with the lower back he's supposed to work his way down to your feet. So I'm guessing he just stopped right before he reached your butt." Folken turned his attention back to Sora. Both Hitomi and Van blushed furiously.  
  
"Well, I guess if you have to..." Hitomi babbled. Van nodded his head. He was about ready to die of embarrassment. Van slid his hands under her towel. Unlike what he thought would happen Hitomi didn't flinch, and actually she relaxed totally. He didn't spend much time massaging her there, well, just because he didn't want to give in to the temptation that had made itself present there. By the end of the massage Hitomi was so loose she could not feel the ache in her muscles. She sat up and turned towards Van. He sat down next to her.  
  
"Thanks, that was great."  
  
"It's the least I could do for last night." She swung her legs back and forth like a child. Hitomi slid closer to Van.  
  
"But still, thanks." She leaned over and kissed Van's cheek. Sora motioned for her to follow her out the door, so she got up and left Van there gaping. He touched the spot on his cheek where she had kissed him, it still tingled. His mind was reeling, in the background there was a song playing.  
  
"Love me love me, say that you love me, need me need me, say that you need me..." Folken had to drag his half delirious brother out of the room to go home, since Van couldn't move by himself.  
  
"Poor guy." He thought.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ end of chapter seven.  
  
Songs featured.  
  
1. "South Texas Deathride." By The Union Underground off of their cd entitled "...an education in rebellion." song number 3 2. "Love me." Can't remember the singer so yeah..... :)  
  
Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter keep on reading and reviewing!!! 


	8. Chapter 8: sad farwells, nightmares of a...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Escaflowne or any of its characters.  
  
Author's notes: Sorry it's taken me this long to get chapter 8 up but I needed a major break...i had a huge writer's block on...and just a bunch of crap.. but to explain things from last chapter...Hitomi wanted a fight/ spar with Van and that's why they were fighting.. like physically...so yeah..and well Van has had some pent up sexual frustration let's just say that..and yeah...so I hope you guys enjoy this chapter thanks to all who read this and review it also.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 8  
  
~Flashback~  
  
Dryden sat beside his sister's unconscious form once again. The cuts were deeper this time and were vertical, she meant business. He brushed a stray group of fuschia hair away from her serene face.  
  
"I'm sorry Merle-chan, but this time you have to get help." Dryden choked on those words. Tears began to rise in his eyes and he looked up to the heavens looking for guidance.  
  
~End flashback~  
  
Dryden sighed into his hands. Merle was sent to a suicide clinic in Scotland only two days ago. He had written to Dilandau to tell him where she was and how he could reach her or visit her. He hoped, desperately hoped, that Dilandau would visit her. He seemed to be the only person that could get through to her now. Dryden had to keep on saying to himself that he did the right thing but sending Merle there. But now he wasn't so sure about that. He had seen the pain in her eyes as they dragged her by the arms out of the door and into that white vehicle of doom. She had screamed for him and he turned his face and heart away, so unable to bear the bereavement of losing his twin to this twisted sickness that enveloped her deranged brain. Millerna came up silently behind him and wrapped an arm around his weary shoulders.  
  
"I know what you're thinking and you did the right thing." She gave him a reassuring squeeze. He chuckled in a soft, faint voice. He peered at her through his fingers.  
  
"I'm glad you're here." He took his face out of his hands and pulled her closer to him.  
  
"I'm glad too." She held him trying to banish any bad thoughts from his mind, while trying to ignore the horrible fantasies that plagued her own. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ March 21st  
  
"A dream, yes, this must be a dream. No, a nightmare." She repeated to herself over and over. The sky was on fire and a great conflagration roared through the city. Two monstrous machines, or something in armor ran towards each other. (Note: Hitomi doesn't know what the heck guymelefs are...so if you're wondering what I'm talking about I'm talking about them.) Guttural cries were released as the clang of the giant sabers sent a shockwave of piercing metal rolling through the air. Angry human screams came from inside these, giant fighters. The voices invaded her head and grew louder. She clutched her head until her knuckles were white as she fell to her knees shrieking.  
  
"Get them out get them out!" The voices paid no attention to her head and grew louder and louder until her brain felt like it would explode. She sat up with a start. Her skin was cold and clammy and her breathing was hard. Rubbing her face Hitomi listened for the voices but heard none. Only the silence of her midnight angels that sat above her bead, their porcelain faces knowing nothing of her pain or life.  
"Just a dream," she sighed.  
  
"Why won't you die?!" A familiar voice screamed in her brain.  
  
"No, not again." The room swirled back into the chaotic burning town.  
  
"Lord Van.." The high strung voice cackled.  
  
"Van? Here?" Her hazel eyes widened as she swung around looking for him.  
  
"I'll kill you!" Van's familiar voice shrieked as Escaflowne (again she doesn't know but all of you know who and what that is and what it looks like.) lunged at the other man-like machine.  
  
"NO!" She wailed as loud as she could before she blacked out. She woke again but didn't bother to sit up. Her room, she hoped this wasn't a dream again. Her hair clung to her forehead and her skin was slick with sweat. Panic soon struck Hitomi.  
  
"What if it wasn't a dream?" Her pendant was glowing on the nightstand beside her.  
"What the crap is going on?" Her voice wavered. She needed someone right now, anyone. Not bothering what time it was, Hitomi bolted out of her bed and into the closest room, which just so happened to be Van's.  
  
"Van, you awake?" She whispered as she shook Van's sleeping frame. He rolled over and opened his eyes.  
  
"Hitomi?" He asked in a groggy voice.  
  
"Hai." By now her whole body was trembling like a leaf and Van's eyes had adjusted to the darkness to see this.  
  
"What's wrong Hitomi-chan?" He sat up with obvious concern. She didn't respond, she just stood there and trembled like a frightened child. "Nightmare?" Hitomi nodded her head. The room exploded with feathers as Van motioned for her to join him on his bed. She fit perfectly into his arms, his wings closed around them in an attempt to comfort her.  
  
"Thank you Van." Hitomi snuffled as she lay on Van's chest still shivering.  
  
"No problem." She was already asleep. Van sighed. The faintest bit of light started to crack through the curtains, he looked down at her. A smile crept across his face, she looked so innocent. Unintentionally his wings and arms tightened their grip just a bit more, if anyone wanted to hurt her they would have to get through him first. Van dozed off into dreamland with that same grin on his face.  
  
`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Hitomi woke up before Van did. It took her a minute to remember where she was and how she got there. She blushed. She was snuggled firmly against Van's muscular body. His strong arms were encircled around her waist and his wings gave her warmth like a fuzzy blanket. The harsh lines of his face were softened dramatically in his sleep. Hitomi brushed a few strands of raven hair out his serene face.  
  
"Mon ange." She whispered. Van's maroon eyes flew open, startling her.  
"I did-didn't know you were up." She stammered.  
  
"Only for a few minutes..." He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "...ma cherie." He removed an arm from her waist and returned a few lost honey hairs back behind her ear. His hand lingered on her face and caressed her smooth cheek.  
  
"Van, I..."  
  
"Shh." Van interjected in a soft voice. "Have any more nightmares?" His stray hand returned to her waist. Hitomi shook her head.  
  
"No, but I still had dreams. Dreams of another world. You and I were there. So was everyone to, except Yukari and Amano."  
  
"What do you think that means?"  
  
"I don't know, but I think your having wings has something to do about it." They both sighed. Sensing the tension in the air Van changed the subject.  
  
"I've never slept with my wings out, it feels good." Hitomi said nothing but laid her head back down. Her breathing grew quiet and rhythmic, that's when Van knew she had fallen back asleep. Only a few minutes passed before the door to Van's roomed creaked open. Folken poked his head into his little brother's room to see if he was up. He almost burst out laughing at what he saw. Hitomi cuddled up to Van and his wings were wrapped around her.  
"Took them long enough." He said to himself. Van looked up and glared at Folken to leave. Chuckling he held up his hands and turned away. He knew that Van wouldn't do anything. Besides, Hitomi was asleep in his arms. Van just wanted to watch her and hold her while she slept. He didn't want to wake her up. Folken shook his head as he closed the door and headed down the stairs to the kitchen.  
"Maybe he'll tell her how he feels, before it's too late." He mentally sighed. "Maybe." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ end chapter 8  
  
yeah..no songs.. I know.. but didn't feel like putting any in there..enjoy!!! I hope you like it. 


	9. Chapter 9: Group Therapy blues, a trippe...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Escaflowne nor any of the characters. I also don't own the bands or any of the songs I choose to mention in my fan fiction.  
  
Author's notes: Yay my formatting doesn't suck anymore! alrighty guys chapter nine here.. only..21 more to go! bwhahahahah *ducks* I forsee some good chapters and some short ones ahead..but I asure that this will be all worth it.uh yeah..i hope you guys like this chapter...and yeah...read and review s'il vous plait!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
April 1st  
  
"This is group therapy, it's supposed to help you." A man pleaded.  
  
"Listen Chelsea..."  
  
"It's Chesta!"  
  
"Okay Chesta, I think that group therapy is bulls-" Merle started out. A hand quickly covered her mouth from behind. A small squeak of surprise escaped her mouth before she bit her canine teeth into the finger that was over her mouth.  
  
"Ahhh!" The pale hand withdrew. "What the heck is your problem?"  
  
Eye twitching she turned to face the boy who was going to be in serious need of plastic surgery after she was done with him. Her fiery sienna eyes locked with a pair of smiling black ones.  
"What's MY problem? MY problem?! What's YOUR problem?" Her voice strained to yell at the boy, her throat was raw from sobbing into the wee hours of the night, and to make it all the more enjoyable she hadn't gotten much sleep since she arrived here. Her body trembled all the time, her left eye had developed a constant twitch, and she was in no mood to be messed around with. He leaned forward to whisper into her ear.  
  
"If you swear or act disgruntle they'll just make you come to more group sessions." A sloppy grin spread across his face as he leaned back and put his hands behind his head. Merle gaped at him before recovering her wits.What nerve! In a silent fury she turned back forward with a frown plastered on her tanned face and prepared herself to endure the pure agony of what is called, group therapy. She felt sick to her stomach the whole hour, nothing but feelings. How do you feel the leader would ask, Merle wanted to flick her off and leave the room, that's how she felt. All this feeling crap, what if someone didn't want to feel anymore? What if that person didn't want to fill the void down in her heart? What if she just wanted darkness to overcome her in her sleep, drawing the last breath out of her pathetic and frail frame of which nature gave her? She said a silent prayer of thanks to the heavens when the session was over. Merle waited until everyone had left before she held out her arms to look at the failed attempt of leaving this cruel world. The cuts were still healing, bright red and sore. She knew she should have cut deeper, but something had stopped her, something deep in the ressess of her mind. She didn't know what it was but she would find out soon before she left this hell hole. A cough sounded from the doorway. There stood the same boy, her eyes narrowed. He leaned casually against the door frame letting his built body be supported by the frame. He swept a hand through his chocolate hair.  
  
"Coming?" He smiled sheepishly. Merle said nothing as she rose from her spot. Brushing past him she clutched her elbows and hurried down the hall to her room.  
"What's eating her?" The boy thought as his eyes followed her figure until it disappeared in a room. Dislodging his shoulder from the door frame, he forced his body to walk in the opposite direction while making a vow to get to know that fuschia haired girl. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The door slammed shut behind her as she flew into the room and flung herself onto her bed. Something jabbed into her side, turning her tear- stained face, Merle spotted a letter. A letter from Dilandau. Her heart raced as she tore open the the red envelope. It was a brief letter telling her when he would visit and how much he missed her. Maybe he did have feelings for her, she could feel her heart begin to beat again. Slow and unsure at first but then it grew steady, and beated to a familiar song.  
"Wig wam bam gonna make you my man, wam bam bam gonna get you if I can, wig wam bam wanna make you understand, try a little touch, try a little too much, just try a little wig wam bam!" The falsetto voice of the singer blared out. Only the letter from him made this place seem bearable and not like a prison. And this new prospect, of getting to see him while she was trapped here made her want to stay all the more. A little smirk appeared on her face as she concocted a fiendish plan to get Dilandau in her arms. No, maybe this place isn't that bad at all, she mused. Drawing a hand across her cheeks, she wiped away the fallen tears of her misery. I must be strong, sighing inwardly she closed her eyes and brought her sore legs into the lotus position. Letting her mind go blank, she began to drift into another world. Tenatively, images came to her mind. Rolling green hills of heather, followed by a dilapidated castle. The ruins stood smoking as two lone figures emerged from it. She strained her inner eye to see them. Who were they? The sun shone belligerently in the high vaulted sky, casting a sinister look upon everything she saw around her. The sky turned red, blood red, the fields liquified into a red mush before her very eyes. The two figures screamed and began to twist and bend, one exploded then the next. Blood was around her, everywhere she looked, she looked back upon the fallen bits of the two people. More aparations began to come to existence around her. Dragons, carnage, and death. A city on fire, screams echoed in her ears until she could take no more. The dragons loomed closer, she could feel the heat coming out their mouths, too late she thought. The corners of the bloody scene melted away, swirling into complete oblivion. The world grew dark and oppressive until Merle couldn't see anymore. I'm trapped, she opened her mouth in a silent wail before she became one with the darkness.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A mysterious phone call, the same day.  
  
"And the other girl?"  
  
"Coma."  
  
"I see, you've done well. How soon?"  
  
"Be patient, your time will come." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two days from then.  
  
Someone nudged him, hard too. Blinking his eyes open he gazed up from the chair he fell asleep in. A man with white hair and crayon red eyes stood over him with a questionable look on his features.  
  
"How's she doing?" He turned his attention to Merle's comatose form.  
  
"Not so good, they can't wake her up. Oh, I'm Gadess." Gadess stuck out his hand and smiled weakly.  
  
"Dilandau Albatou." Dil gripped his hand and shook it firmly.  
  
"So what are you her boyfriend?" Gadess questioned while motioning to the flowers in Dilandau's albino hand. Dilandau blused a little.  
  
"No, just a friend from Japan; what about you?" Gadess laughed.  
  
"Not even a friend really, but I wanted to be. Someone might as well watch over her." He shrugged.  
  
"Her brother will be thankful." They both sighed.  
  
"Is he coming to visit?"  
  
"Yea, as soon as he can. He's worried sick about Merle-chan." Dilandau walked towards the bed.  
  
"I'd be too." Gadess got up out of his chair and decided to give Dilandau some privacy. Dilandau pulled a chair to her side and laid the red roses down beside her body.  
  
"Oh Merle..." He whispered as he stroked her hair before burying his face into it and weeping softly. What had she done? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
end chap 9.. sorry for this chapter being short..the next one will be too..but yeah.. ok.. songs used  
  
1. "Wig Wam Bam" by Sweet  
  
uh yeah..sorry for taking so long on updating.. read and review and be brutally honest I don't care I just want feedback. 


	10. To: Jackal Sign Blue This is not a chapt...

To: Jackal Sign Blue  
  
Although I am open to your criticism or some forms it, you have over- stepped your bounds. First of all, I enjoy my pen name and due to the fact that I had no clue what to name my fan fiction I decided to just use my pen name. You seem to be the only with a problem with that. Ah, yes the formatting in the first couple chapters. Up until that point FanFiction.net had been changing my formatting, on my computer under Microsoft Word there had been paragraphs and gaps so it would be easier for the reader. But as you can clearly see after uploading it onto FanFiction.net the formatting had been changed for the worse. Now I ask who is the idiot? There is such thing as a five minute silence, and yes I have experienced that before because it was an awkward situation. My ignorance? I know that I have not been to either of the countries sadly, but neither have half the other people who write fan fictions. So just because I do not describe it to your "high" expectations does not mean my writing is complete crap.  
Oh yeah, let me remind you this is a fan fiction and I can do whatever I want. That includes changing the characters however much I want. If you do not like my writing you should not be reading it genius. Now if I write about subjects that I do not know everything on, there will be nothing to write about. But that rule should apply to you, thus you should not be able to write this horrible review about my writing and me since you know nothing about my writing and me. The one thing you are right about is that I have never experienced divorce. But my friends have, and I have seen the after-effects close-hand. So I do know a little bit about what I am talking about. Sometimes when things happen it takes the human heart/brain a little bit to process things and then we realize what happened. Appropriate punctuation is a weakness of mine, I know that. I have had trouble with grammar and punctuation for a while. You think I am bad? I recommend reading All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. He never uses quotation marks, and rarely uses commas. Then there is e.e. cummings, who does what ever he wants to. I am not comparing myself to either of this wonderful writers but, I am pointing out that the author can do whatever they so please to do when writing.  
Again, here comes the whole artist interpretation thing, as long as I have a disclaimer and say that I do not own Escaflowne or any of the characters I have basically a creative license to write anything I please about the characters or the plot lines. Check out some of the other fan fictions, I suggest Dreams by Azure. But seeing that you are a guy you probably would not like half of the fan fictions because over half are written by girls, including me. If they are written by girls, well then, most likely they will be a love story half the time where the author changes the settings and the characters' personalities to fit their own ideas. If you were a girl you would know what a "girlie wail" is. I chose to describe it that way to make it seem, satirical possibly. My aim was to show the readers what the stereotypical girlie-girl acts like sometimes.  
Where are your people skills? Hmm? It seems you do not do well communicating with other people. Moving on now, yes I have moved. In fact I have moved several times. Also you do not seem to read that deep into characters, Hitomi at the beginning of the chapter is very pissed off at the world. She just moved away from her friends, all of them and was put into a totally different environment. If I was her I would want to water balloon anyone. Hmm, yes I may be an idiot but at least I admit it rather that hiding behind a pitiful criticism rather than talking to me personally. Spell checker is a crutch, and sometimes I am in a hurry. I take it you do not take another language because once you start taking another language it is common to misspell words in your original language. Maroon is a word that I have trouble remembering, because in French it is marron. But that slips my mind quite frequently. So if you are done taking the cheapest shots at my writing and spell check problems I suggest that you shut up.  
Also, your review was a text, not a true review. No paragraphs, then profanity which shows that you do not have very much class and that you do not possess enough brain power to think of better words to use. The all capital letters at times shows that you are forceful, pushy, and have a hard time getting your point across with words. Finally, I believe that you should take anger-management classes or see a psychiatrist.  
  
Sincerely, Regina aka Wings-of-Light 


	11. Chapter 10: A chaotic prom, french convo...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Escaflowne nor any of the characters in it. I do not own the bands or the songs I use in this story..except for one..heheh..  
  
Author's notes: uh...not much to say except please enjoy it and I am open to receive anything from praise to criticism..quick note if you didn't figure it out.. the guy that was bothering Merle in the last chapter was Gadess.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 10, May 2nd  
  
The room erupted into a chaotic chatter as soon as the fuzzy intercom clicked off of the announcements. Hitomi gave Van a quizzical look as girls and boys seemed to disperse into two separate groups in the room. Van leaned over his desk and whispered into her ear one word. "Prom." Hitomi "ahhed", she didn't get the big deal about it. Prom wasn't a very big deal at her old school, but here it would either make or break the social status of the underclassmen. Or so that's what Van told her. Hitomi quickly pulled out a pen and scribbled something down. She passed it over to Van.  
  
"Vas-tu aller?" (Are you going to go?) He scribbled back.  
  
"Ca depend, si j'ai une petite copine, j'irai." ( That depends/Depends, if I have a girlfriend, I'll go.)  
  
"Bien sur." ( Of course.)  
  
"Et toi?" (And you?)  
  
"Je ne sais pas." (I don't know.)  
  
"Pourquoi ne restons-nous pas?" (Why don't we stay home?(from the prom that is))  
  
"Cela est parfait! Nous pouvons regarder des films!" (That's perfect! We can watch movies!)  
  
Van chuckled at the thought of both of them cuddled up on a couch watching movies.  
  
"Oui, oui, ou plus." (Yes, yes, or more.)  
  
"Que ce serait?" (What would that be?)  
  
"Tu verras." (You'll see.)  
  
Both Hitomi and Van burst out laughing.  
  
"Van, tu es etrange." (Van, you're strange.)  
  
"Oui, et je l'adore." (Yes, and I adore/love it.) Hitomi glanced over her shoulder and smirked.  
  
"Regardes." (Look.) She poked Van's ripped arm with a jell pen. Sora was chatting with a giant circle of girls and surrounded by mounds of magazines. Van rolled his marron eyes towards the ceiling.  
  
"Les Filles." (Girls.) Hitomi cuffed Van upside the head. "Hey!"  
  
"Je suis une fille aussi! Ou ne sais-tu pas que je suis une fille?" (I'm a girl too! Or don't you know that I am a girl?) Hitomi fake shouted at Van.  
  
"I didn't mean it that way." He whined as he rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head.  
  
"Bien." (Good.) Hitomi giggled uncontrolably.  
  
"Why are you still talking in french?"  
  
"Parce que je peux." (Because I can.) He rolled his eyes again. That proved to be a fatal mistake and he received another cuff upside the head.  
  
"OW! HEY! That's not cool!" Van quickly glanced around for a minute. Without warning he jumped out of his desk and tackled Hitomi out of her desk. The two of them hit the carpeted floor with a thud. Van grinned from ear to ear as he began to tickle Hitomi.  
  
"NON! T'ARRETES!" (No, stop!) Hitomi began to gasp for breath.  
  
"Not until you say uncle and stop talking in french." Hitomi struggled to get out from under his grip, but his body held her firmly pinned against the floor. Those who looked upon this scene and didn't know their relationship might think they were having sex with clothes on.  
  
"Jamais! Je ne dirai pas oncle!" (Never! I will not say uncle!)  
  
"All right if you say so." Relentlessly Van attacked the most ticklish spots on her body. Hitomi could feel herself growing faint and pretty darn close to peeing in her pants from laughing so much. Tears streamed down her face and Van was close to tears too from laughing so hard.  
  
"UNCLE!" Hitomi roared that one word with all the oxygen she had left in her lungs. Van lept off of her and held a hand out. 


	12. Chapter 10 part b The ending of chapter ...

Sorry about that, it seems I had a few copies of the same chapter and well...that copy had cut off the ending. So this is the ending for chapter 10 sorry it is such a short chapter. But it is just setting up the events for the next one.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"UNCLE!" Hitomi roared that one word with all the oxygen she had left in her lungs. Van lept off of her and held a hand out. She grabbed the hand and hauled herself off the ground. Van sat down in his desk and grinned like nothing had just happened while Hitomi made a mad dash for the closest bathroom. Oh she was so going to get Van back for the tickle attack. She didn't know how to yet. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ end chapter 10  
  
Yeah I know really short..but bear with me the next chapter I know you'll love... 


	13. Chapter 11: Visions, creepy ghost filled...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Escaflowne nor any of the characters. I also do not own any of the songs or bands mentioned in the chapters.  
  
Notes from the Author:  
  
In concern to the recent reviews I would like to make some statements again. I accept anything thing from compliments to constructive criticism. But, constructive criticism would be telling me plot holes or things on which I could improve upon in a nice and courteous way, not picking apart my chapters by the most minuscule things. Also I will not, absolutely not change my story for anyone. Once the chapters are posted I intend to make no changes. So, if you do not like my story do not read it then.  
  
Now to our darling Jackal Sign Blue, I have a few things to say to you. Don't you have anything better to do than to sit around and rip apart someone's story? Is that how you get your kicks for the day? By totally destroying some potential writer's story as well as their self-esteem to make your own crappy writing seem better? I've never seen any of your writing because you hide behind a fake name. I would gladly go and critique your "work" if you have any. I don't give a crap if you continue to harass my story and me. I can take whatever you throw against me because I know that this is not my best writing. Besides what is this called? A fan fiction. Not some philosophical award winning novel, brainiac.  
  
I don't care if you think my sentence structure sucks because I write the way I want to. All I can tell you to do is to take that keyboard and shove it up yours because you are not doing anyone any good with your reviews. The first thing that comes to my mind when I read your reviews is: Is that all you have? You make the same points repeatedly without substantial support to back up your opinions. So who is the queen of originality now? Oh, the spell check crutch thing again. Guess what?! No one cares except for you that I misspelled pinned and maroon.( Just so you know, I will not give support to my statements because it is blatantly obvious to the readers that I am right about this.) For all I care you can stop reading my fan fiction because you give me nothing in means of feedback.  
  
Next, I believe that you should apologize to those who do read my fan fiction. You insulted them in you last review, and they don't deserve that from a low life bitch like you. I say bitch because there is no other way to put it. You are not an amicable person from what I have experienced and I am glad that I don't know who you are. I'm also happy that I am the one receiving this from you. Not some other writer who would take you seriously. Writing come from the author's heart and own mind, they write things for themselves and not other people. So if you want things done the way you want, and you don't like the way that other people come about those things. Then do it yourself and quit reading the stories that you have problems with. I will not stand here and let you insult my readers or my story because you have a problem with it. So if you will please, take your bitter words and go critique your own "work". Then you will see how much of a jerk you are being. If you become a constant problem with those reviews you call constructive criticism I will remove your reviews. That is all I have to say you, Jackal Sign Blue.  
  
Moving on from that, I would like to thank the readers and reviewers who enjoy my story. You guys keep me wanting to update at a quicker pace so you can see what becomes of Van, and the rest of the crew. Hopefully, I will finish soon, until then I hope you enjoy this chapter. ~Gina aka Wings-Of-Light~  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 11, Prom Night  
  
Darkness all around him, closing in upon him like he was its prey. The sound of a gong broke through the unbearable silence. Light poured forth from the source in the form of the sound vibrations. Waves of a golden hue started to reach out into the darkness, weaving their way around room. The darkness fought back. It struggled to stifle the gong and the light. He could feel it, feel the darkness dying away. He could feel its fear and taste its defeat. With a surge of adrenaline coursing through his veins he let out war cry. At last, the darkness was gone. Van stood in the center of a circular room. A library with books piled from the floor up to the massive ceiling above. The air in the room shimmered with golden dust as he walked warily towards a lone book lying on the floor. Bending down he scooped the musty book up to get a better look at it. Dust covered the title of the saffron book. Slowly he dusted the cover off with his hand and gasped. Van, was all the title said. He dropped the book and cried out, "Where am I? Someone answer me!" A low hum began to come to his attention. He looked above him, the ceiling it was receding back to show the night sky.  
"What on earth?" He started to retreat to a wall of books. With his eyes fixed upon the starry sky he backed straight into the wall. The wall of towering books swayed from side to side and Van let out a yelp while covering his head with his arms. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the thousands of books to come tumbling down upon him. Nothing came. One by one his tense muscles began to relax until something whizzed by his left ear. The object slammed onto the floor with an ear-splitting smack. Opening his maroon eyes, Van looked up to make sure nothing else was coming down from the wall. A curious music began to fill the room. Van ignored it and turned his attention to the object that was upon the floor.  
  
"Another book? Can this get anymore weird?" He mused out loud. Kneeling down on one knee he gingerly picked up the rose colored book and turned it over to the front cover. There, in gold calligraphy letters was "Hitomi".  
  
"Where is my head? Where are my bones? Why are my days so far from home? Where is my head? Where are my bones? Can you save me from myself? Can you save me from my-yself? "A faint voice whispered into Van's ears. He jumped.  
  
"Who's there?" His knuckles gripped the book until they turned white.  
  
"I was there when they took all the people..." The voice wavered around the room.  
  
"Where are you? Come out I say!" No one answered. Van sighed in relief and scanned the room once again. Seeing that he would not be disturbed, he sat on the floor. The music began to fade in as he turned to the first page. A picture of Hitomi at the Halloween dance was there. But to make it more bizarre the picture started to move.  
  
"...you breathe life when you set me free..." A chill ran down his spine.  
  
"Definitely weird." He turned a couple more pages. "Hey! This is when Hitomi and I were fighting for the first time. What is this thing? A memory book?"  
  
"...ghost man...How come we get so lost? Ghost man." The voice sang into the sky. Flipping through the book an on-rush of memories flooded Van.  
  
"But does this book have an end?" The last page only had a few words written on it.  
"More to come? Well I definitely got the shaft." He grumbled in surprise.  
  
"Be sure that what you dream of won't come to hunt you out." That was the last Van heard of the voice as he shut the book. Silence settled upon the library again. The room began to glow brighter, Van had to shield his eyes from the light.  
  
"Van!" Someone pouted above him.  
  
"Wha?" He mumbled through the blankets.  
  
"Get up, we still have our movie night." Hitomi ripped the covers off Van and then pulled him off the end of his bed.  
  
"Ahhh, you're so cruel." Van whined weakly as he attempted to prop his elbows up.  
  
"Quit complaining." Hitomi giggled as she plopped down on his bed. Van glared at her from below the bed.  
  
"You pull me off my bed so you can sit on it and watch movies?" His voice was low and edgy.  
  
"Of course." She grinned and stretched out her long legs on his bed. Van proceeded to pounce back onto the bed. Landing on top of Hitomi he pinned her body with his. Van grinned as her hazel eyes widened in surprise and fear.  
  
"No, anything but tickling." She pleaded. A mischievous glint filled his maroon eyes. He brought his face closer to her.  
  
"And who said that I would tickle you? Hmm?" He questioned while cocking his head a little to the side. Hitomi blushed at the situation and position that they were in. Van could fell any self-control he had starting to slip away. She was so beautiful, and all those months of waiting were starting to take their toll. His hand started to shake as it reached to caress her pale cheek. Both swallowed audibly when his hand touched her cheek. Hitomi's eyes began to scan the room for ways out of the situation but when her gaze settled upon Van she lost any will to do so.  
  
"Then, what do you intend to do?" Her throat dried up and her heart began to beat faster.  
  
"This." Van tilted her chin up with two fingers and leaned in. Their lips met in a thrilling contact. The first kiss was sweet and innocent, a kiss that both had been waiting months for. Pulling away from the kiss, Van started to gaze upon Hitomi. Her hazel eyes twinkled in amazement. A small grin spread across her face. Hungry for more she wrapped her arms around Van's neck and pulled him down for a more intimate kiss. Her tongue slid into Van's hot mouth making him moan in response. His arms that were supporting him gave way and snaked around her waist so his body was pressing hers down into the mattress. He tightened his grip around her waist and deepened the kiss. Their tongues jousted and ran rampant in each other's mouths as Hitomi's played with his unruly hair. The air around them grew hot as Van continued to press Hitomi into the mattress. Her back arched to the delicious weight of Van on her, she moaned softly. "Van." She thought before she broke away from the kiss breathless. Her chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath. Van slid off from being on top of her and pulled her into his arms. Hitomi snuggled into them happily and sighed contentedly as she laid her head on his chest. After kissing the top of her head, he rested his cheek on her smooth honey hair. No one spoke. All the sexual tensions and secret passions had just been released in a torrent of kisses and caresses. For the time, their hearts pulsed together in pure elation. Each understanding the other perfectly, what was the need for spoken words.  
  
"I didn't expect that." Hitomi snuffled into his red shirt. Both smiled.  
  
"Well, did you honestly expect me not go crazy over the perfect girl who just happens to sleep in the next room?" He whispered huskily into her ear and tightened his grip around her waist. Hitomi turned her gaze up into his beaming face.  
  
"You, Van Fanel," She poked him in the stomach," you just stole my first kiss." She twisted around so she faced him directly.  
  
"Did I now? You seemed more than willing. In fact, you kissed me back." She poked him again and he grimaced in mock pain.  
"Yes you did, you stole it and I want it back." She pouted at him. Stroking his chin in contemplation Van made a decision.  
  
"All right, you can have it back." With that he pulled her roughly to him, crushing his lips on hers. His tongue glided upon her lower lip asking to enter. She pressed her body harder against his and opened her mouth. Passion surged through their veins and flared the spark deep within their souls. All thoughts were lost in the moment and all that could be found was the love they had for one another. The kiss ended as quickly as it had started but ended up having Hitomi crushed against Van's ribcage, gasping for breath.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Meanwhile in Scotland.  
  
A light flashed in the dark, pulsing, a dull impetus drawing her closer to it. Her cold body was bathed in warmth. A beep sounded from the sensors. Gaddess looked around wildly before elbowing Dilandau awake.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"Five more minutes please..." Dilandau muffled through his pillow.  
  
"I think she may be waking up." Gaddess continued to nudge the albino.  
  
"What?!" His voice cracked as he bolted upright.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"She's waking up, you failed to do your job."  
  
"A minor set back, I'll finish off what I started. No worries."  
  
"You had better or it's your head."  
  
"Indeed." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Back in Japan.  
  
"See wasn't this better than prom?" Hitomi asked as Van popped a fresh brownie into his mouth.  
  
"MmmHmmm." He savored the brownie.  
  
"I'll take your orgasmic sound as a yes." Van opened one eye and winked at her before going back to the rich brownie.  
  
"Ah this woman can cook." He thought. After finishing the brownie he opened both eyes and looked over at Hitomi.  
  
"Hey, where's your necklace?" Hitomi felt her neck and then remembered.  
  
"Oh yeah, Sora borrowed it for tonight. Thanks for reminding me."  
  
"No problem. How about another movie?"  
  
"All right, but you don't get all the brownies Buster!"  
  
"Try and stop me!" In a flash, Van grabbed the brownies and dashed out of the room.  
  
"No fair!" Hitomi yelled as she chased after him.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Her eyes fluttered open. Everything was blurry around her.  
  
"Where? Where am I?" She asked in a scratchy voice. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
end of chapter 11  
  
This chapter jumped around a bit at the end, you'll be able to catch on.  
  
Songs mentioned  
  
1. "Ghostman" by Bush off of their cd Golden State, song number 2 


	14. Review of Jackal, from Ruby

Message to Jackal Sign Blue from :Ruby (This following message is a review that was written by Ruby and sent to me, Jackal Sign Blue, to send to you. She would like you to know her opinion and quite frankly I am all too happy to relay the message.)  
  
My fellow author,rnI request you make a note for JsB to read this review because after reading hers, I find myself wanting to communicate my true feelings about her & her authoress bashing.rnrnWoL: I find your story very intresting. The sway of fanfiction Escaflowne has been moved to high school fics and reading fic, after fic of the same bases is kind of decrapitaing. However I find your version on it quite refreshing. True your meanings can sometimes be obscure and your sentence structure lacks pep, but the emotion your words create build a new sense of understanding within character and the plot. I for one truly enjoy reading your fic. It is a breath of fresh air, and I hope you will continue on updating.rnrnLater,rnrurnrnJsB,rnAfter WoL story I found myself drawn to read your reviews. The only thing I can say is Ha. (With feeling) It's amazing how one person can crit. another when they don't reveal their name. Oh and as for the comment about mindless one liners, not everyone has the time and the will to write long reviews. I myself am taking extra time, away from my family I might add, to reply to your spiteful "opinion." I write not for the reviews, but for the fun of it. This author worked their ass off to type up the fic. only to have you try and deprive them off their work. I repeat Ha. I understand your veiws on the writing, but I wish for you to see it from the author's point of view. In closing I hope you will reconsider your constant flames of this author. Constructive criticism is helpful, but malicious comments such as yours only provide the means of labeling you as a bitch. I have found that one should not lower themselves to other's tactics, but for you and the amusement of my brother, I am willing to make an exception. *gives the finger*rnlater,rnru  
  
I hope, dearest darlingest Jackal, that you have enjoyed reading this as much as I did this morning. Oh, and one more thing, Naria would like a few choice words with you. So if you would be kind enough to give out your real username, and face us like the woman you aren't, we would be more than estatic to critique your work.  
  
Love, ~Gina~ 


	15. Chapter 12: Confessions of love, an weir...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Escaflowne nor any of the characters in it.  
  
Author's notes: Sorry for the long delay, but I have been on vacation for the last month almost. I seriously have not had any time to work on it, plus on the side a little writer's block. I would like to thank all of my reader's out there. But I would like to put out a special thanks to Naria, Ruby, and Manderaine. Quick note to Manderaine, thank you for the perfect example of constructive criticism! I will take what you said into consideration. But I won't go back and revise the previous chapters, some things I wrote were purposely meant to sound weird. *shrugs* That's just the way I write and who I am, so yeah. But again thank you. Naria and Ruby, thank you for your encouragement and I hope that you will enjoy the rest of the story. I have about 2 more transition chapters left to write, so if they seem painfully written out it's because I don't want to write them but I need to in order for the story to make sense. That's about all! Again sorry for the long delay.  
  
Chapter 12~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Her eyes fluttered open. Everything was blurry around her.  
  
"Where? Where am I?" She asked in a scratchy voice. Man how her head hurt!  
  
"Merle!" A duet of voices rose through the haze. She could see figures blitzing to her side, but couldn't figure out who they were or where she was. Questions were flying out of the figures' mouths.  
  
"Are you ok?"  
  
"How are you feeling?"  
  
"Hey what's the matter?"  
  
"Gaddess do you think something is wrong?" With every question the pounding inside of her head intensified, pretty soon it felt like someone was hitting her over the head with a sledgehammer. Groaning she rubbed her eyes and temples before trying to focus on the men standing next to her bedside. Her sienna eyes started to focus on their own, soon she recognized Dilandau then Gaddess. Again she asked in a weary voice, "Where am I? Dilandau? Gaddess?" Like best friends they started to finish off each other sentences.  
  
"Well you're in the ER..."  
  
"...in the clinic. I found you unconscious in your room. Then this guy..."  
  
"...then I came to visit you and found out that you were...."  
  
"...here." Gaddess promptly finished. "You were unstable for a while but that's nothing now that you're awake." He waved his hand as if her being in a coma for a couple of weeks was nothing. Merle brought her hands through her hair. A coma? A few weeks? The headache that had started to go away was soon pounding on her brain again.  
  
"Hey what's the matter Merle? You just got really pale." Dilandau leaned closer to check her forehead.  
  
"I have a headache. If you guys wouldn't mind, I'd like to talk to you later. I'm still a little groggy and just not feeling great. So could we do this later?"  
  
"Of course." They said in unison.  
  
"Thanks." She rolled onto her side and pulled the covers tight around her body. Gaddess and Dilandau took this as their cue to leave and turn out the lights. Walking out of the room both had decided to go talk to the doctor, so side by side they marched into his office ready to talk. (Yes I realize that it doesn't make sense that the monitors wouldn't have gone off to alert the staff, but I didn't want to have to mess with them.) Merle sighed, her headache returned to a low throb. What she wouldn't give for an Advil right about now. She felt like she had only been asleep for a couple hours instead of a couple weeks. Every joint in her body was stiff as she shifted into another position. Snuggling into the pillow she tried to fall back asleep, but soon she could hear the clicking of shoe soles on the tile floor enter her room. The light flickered on again and Merle groaned. Now the tests would begin.  
  
~~~~~~  
  
"Van?" Hitomi asked as she lay on her bed, arms beneath her head.  
  
"Yeah?" He poked his head through the doorway.  
  
"Do you ever get the feeling that we don't belong here?" Van walked in and sat next down to Hitomi, taking her hands into his.  
  
"If that means not being with you then no." His thumbs slowly made circles on her hands. Blushing slightly Hitomi shook her head.  
  
"No, I mean like not here on Earth or a different time period. Sometimes I don't feel like I belong." She sat up and snuggled against Van.  
  
"Well if you don't feel like you belong then I most certainly don't. I mean come on, I've got wings and no one can tell me why. Some things just can't be explained in this world and Folken and I are good examples of that." Feathers sprayed the room as his wings unfolded and covered the both of them.  
  
"But, being weird and feeling like you don't belong does has its perks." Both chuckled at his comment before Van pulled Hitomi into a kiss.  
  
~~~~  
  
A new day. Merle had been poked, prodded, and probed yesterday for hours. And why? To see if there was anything wrong with her still. At least her headache was gone, grimacing she pushed herself into a sitting position on her bed. She could feel the sweat drops start to form on her forehead. Of course this was only natural the doctor said, her muscles had atrophied a bit and well she was weaker because of that. So even the small movements of the body that would normally be no problem, would be like an aerobic workout for her. A soft knock came from the door with Dilandau leaning casually against the door frame.  
  
"Up for having a visitor kiddo?" Merle nodded.  
  
"Um, these are for you..." He pulled a bouquet of daffodils from behind his back.  
  
"Thank you." Merle pulled Dilandau down by the front of his shirt and kissed him on the cheek The albino blushed and mummered a no problem. Running his hand through his platinum hair he sat down in a chair next to Merle's bed.  
  
"So how you feelin'?" His voice cracked.  
  
"I'm doing all right. Thanks to you and Gaddess I was prodded for about 6 hours straight!"  
  
"Oh right and they wouldn't notice that you had woken up, sure that's right blame me."  
"I will." She pouted.  
  
"When are you getting out of here?"  
  
"The doctors said I could leave a day after I could walk on my own." She inhaled the scent of the daffodils.  
  
"So in other words a couple weeks? Right?" Merle nodded again. He gazed at Merle, she had lost so much weight in those few weeks, she almost looked like a skeleton with skin on. Gathering her courage Merle decided that it was time she told Dilandau how she felt about him.  
  
"Dilandau I-," But for some reason she couldn't seem to finish her sentence.  
  
"What? Is there something to you want?" He leaned in closer to look her in the eye.  
"I... I love you." She kept her head down while she whispered this. Dilandau's eyes grew enormous, she loved him? Since when? She looked up with tears in her eyes and a lump grew in his throat. Another knock came from the doorway, it was Gaddess. Wiping her tears quickly she said another thank you for the flowers and said good-bye to Dilandau. He felt so confused right now, she told him she loved him, he just couldn't understand. Dilandau nodded to Gaddess as he left the room letting Gaddess have his turn with Merle.  
  
~~~  
Later on that day.  
  
How could she have been so stupid to believe that he would feel the same way. She made a mistake by telling him how she felt.  
"I hope I never see him again, I'll be so embarrassed if I do." She thought to herself. And why was Gaddess being all nice to her, why the sudden change. Oh well, it didn't matter, nothing did anymore. She felt like curling up into a ball and dying right at this moment. Outside her room she could hear a familiar voice asking questions. He poked his head in. It was Dryden!  
  
"Dryden?!"  
  
"Merle! Oh you're ok!" He ran to her and hugged her as hard as he could.  
  
"Dryden...air..." She choked out.  
  
"Oh gosh I'm sorry!" He let her go. "How are you doing? Is it bad here? I miss you and I want you to come home." Merle smiled at her twin's behavior.  
  
"I missed you too, but when I was totally pissed off at you." She chuckled.  
  
"Err, sorry again. Man you scared us all, with the coma and everything." He ruffled her pink hair.  
  
"My turn to say sorry about that."  
  
"I want you to come home, ASAP. I need you back home, I miss having someone to boss around when I'm home." Dryden ruffled her hair again.  
  
"Stop that!" Determined to show her brother up she grabbed his head and started to give him a nuggie. But after a few seconds of that she could feel her energy start to drain. Leaning back into the pillows she smiled up at her twin.  
  
"Ow...," he said while rubbing his head, "do you think they'd mind if I crashed here tonight."  
  
"Not at all." Dryden left the room to make sure it was okay with the doctors. Merle sighed to herself, it was good seeing her brother again. Soon, Dryden came back into the room with his belongings and plopped down beside Merle.  
  
"I'll get out of here soon Dryden." She thought. Soon.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Sorry it was so short but this is a transition chapter..and well don't worry better stuff is going to be coming! Also I a hard time writting this chapter because my heart wasn't in it, so please ignore all the run on sentences because I really don't care about them...lol...  
  
~Gina~ 


	16. Chapter 13: The crumpled letter, doctors...

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Escaflowne nor any of its characters.  
  
Author's notes: I have decided to get rid of the last transition chapter that I was going to write and begin writing the main stuff. Don't worry all of you Merle fans and such.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 13  
  
The pitter-patter sound of the rain on the glass window reached her ears. Her last day in this awful place, she sighed. Dryden had left about a week ago, when she had finally been able to walk on her own. Merle sat on her bed staring at a letter that Dilandau had left her, he couldn't see her off today since he had a thing with his father. She crumpled the letter up and threw it at the closed door. Letting herself rest her back on the bed, she struggled to keep the tears down. It was her last day, and he had the nerve not to say goodbye to her in person.  
It hadn't taken her long to pack her things, since she didn't have much to begin with here. She was happy she was going home. Soon she would see Dryden, Hitomi, Van, Millerna, and well everyone. A smile graced her lips when she thought about sleeping in her own bed, these things that were called beds weren't much more than a slab of concert with a starched blanket over it. Someone at her door knocked and opened the door. Startled she sat up, Gaddess leaned on the door frame with his hands shoved in his pockets.  
  
"Can I come in?" He asked coolly.  
  
"Sure." She slid over to make room for him on the bed. With a certain reluctance he trudged over to the bed and plopped down.  
  
"You excited about leaving?" He questioned with his hands still in his pockets.  
  
"Yea, I'm going to be happy when I get home. No more doctors sitting around me watching my every move and analyzing it." Her entire being shook with laughter.  
  
"I'm..." She looked over at him when he didn't finish his sentence.  
  
"You're?"  
  
"I'm going to miss you." Gaddess whispered without looking her in the eye.  
  
"Hey well, I'll miss you too. When are you getting out? You never told me why you were in here in the first place." Pallor claimed his face and his hands began to shake.  
  
"Well, you see, I won't be getting out. Ever."  
  
"Huh?" Merle couldn't figure out what he was trying to say to her.  
Then looking her straight in the eye, he let out his secret.  
  
"I'm one of your doctors. The others thought it would be best if one of us went undercover to help the patients that way. In the process, I began to have feelings for you, which weren't exactly the best for a doctor to have about one of his patients. I'm sorry I lied to you this whole time, but it was to help you get out of here as soon as possible. I could see you were miserable." Gaddess breathed a sigh of relief after he finished. All Merle could do was gape at him. The one guy that had been her closest confident just told her that he was her doctor, and in her mind doctors equaled the enemies of her life.  
  
Regaining her senses quickly, Merle stood up in a fury of emotions. Anger, betrayal, pain, depression, everything ran through her veins.  
  
"Get. Out. Now." She pointed at the door and turned her face away from him. Dejected he rose and shuffled out of the room only pausing at the door for a moment to glance back at her.  
  
"Goodbye Merle, my love." He said loud enough for her to hear. A door slammed into his face  
  
"At least she didn't try and kill me." He thought as he walked to his office. Merle still in her room, slid down the door and began to weep into her hands. Why did life have to be so hard?  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Tokyo Airport The next day  
  
The plane landed with a jolt on the runway, signaling that they had arrived at the final destination. Apprehension gripped her mind tightly as she grabbed her bag from the overhead compartment. Would they be there to see her come off? Do they even care? She stepped into the aisle while the line inched forward, body pressed against other bodies with bags. Didn't anyone know how to get off a plane?  
  
"Of course not." She said out loud.  
  
"What was that dearie?" The old woman that was behind her asked.  
  
"Nothing." Merle muttered while staring at her feet. How interesting it is that the simplest things can amuse you for quite awhile. She had been staring at her checkered chucks for about five minutes before she got off the plane and into the terminal. Glancing up she could only see blurs before she felt arms around her. "Merle!" The momentum pushed her to the floor along with the person or the people who had tackled her. Opening her eyes, she Dryden and Van. Dryden was crunching her arms and Van was wrapped around her legs so she couldn't move. Joy sprang up inside her, they did remember and they do care.  
  
"Did you find her?" A cheery voice called from the side. Still clenching Merle both answered in a loud "yes". With that four other people ran to Merle and helped her up (and at the same time prying Van and Dryden off of her.) (Can't you just see some manga drawing of that!lol.)  
  
"Gosh, we're so glad to see you!" Millerna hugged her.  
  
"I'm happy to be back." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
After a round of bone-crushing hugs and " how are you I missed you" questions, they were soon on their way home. It's funny how little of a personal bubble you can have with 7 people jammed into a compact car.  
  
"Can't breathe..." Van managed to choke out.  
  
"Aww quit your whining wussie." Hitomi poked him in the ribs.  
  
"Easy for you to say, you've got something sexy and comfy to sit on." With that he smiled sheepishly.  
  
"Comfy? You're bony! And well about that sexy part...I don't know..." Merle looked back to see Van tickling Hitomi furiously and saying "Take that back!" The rest of the group looked on the couple and started to snicker at their childlike behavior. On the other hand, Merle just smiled and went back to staring out the window. Not much had changed since she left, but she didn't suspect that much would have. A faint song began to play, it was...oh what was that? She remembered it from so long ago. Ah ha! Bohemian Rhapsody!  
  
"Oh I'm ringing!" Millerna laughed as she pulled out her cell phone.  
  
"Ya? Dilandau? You want to talk to Merle? Didn't you say goodbye to her in person? I see. All right I'll put her on." Millerna handed the pink cell phone foreword.  
  
"Hello? Merle?" Dilandau voice cracked.  
  
"Go to Hell." She told him in a cold voice. After hanging up the cell, she handed it back to Millerna.  
  
"Thanks." The group just stared at her. Hitomi was the first to say anything.  
  
"Um, Merle? Did I miss something here?"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
End of chapter 13  
  
sorry again for the long delay...also I would to say that I know my chapters have been a bit choppy but they'll get a lot better after this one..hehehe...anywho..um. yeah..i hope to get this done soon..i have a lot of stuff I have to do...but yeah love ya'll ~Gina~ 


	17. Chapter 14: Hamlet, wussies, and mail

Author's note : Sorry to all my fans for the long update. I have a habit of starting things and not finishing them. So, this is my attempt to finish my fan fiction since I have time at college right now. Oh and no I was not scared off by JSB's notes.

Chapter 14

Merle's hair was practically standing on end after the end of the call. Obviously, the blond and the rest of the group missed something tres important.

"Um, Merle? Did I miss something here?" Hitomi paused for an answer.

There's a saying that silence is golden. This would be true if by golden they meant, an intense hatred towards Dilandau and the rest of the free world who asked questions. Suppressing her urge to kill, Merle quickly turned around in her chair and glared at Hitomi.

"No." She seethed.  
Rather than risking their lives and asking what the heck was going on, the E-crew kept their mouths shut. The rest of the ride was spent in an awkward silence, interrupted only by Millerna's annoying ring tone and Merle's indignant mutters. As soon as Merle was dropped off, there was an audible sigh of relief from the rest of the passengers. Van was the first to comment.

"Note to self: self never ask Merle what happened in Scotland and never let Hitomi ask questions again."

"Hey!" She protested.

"Is for horses and sometimes cows too!" He smiled with glee.

"No that's not..." Van moved his face in close to Hitomi's and gazed into her eyes, making her lose her train of thought.

"I mean…." Still slightly unnerved by Van's stare, Hitomi continued to ramble.

"Me thinks…." He whispered.

"Yes Van?" By now Hitomi was leaning in closer to just to hear him.

"Me thinks…the lady doth protest too much!" Ending his Hamlet quotation with a victorious yell, Van rushed out of the car, lest he stay for the beating Hitomi was swearing he'd get; once she could hear in her right hair again Muttering and climbing out of the car, Hitomi thanked Millerna for the ride and entered the house. Pure silence, she couldn't tell where Van was in the house. It was as if she were a mouse trapped with a lion, a very unpredictable one. She scanned the room for any pending threats but found none.

"I guess it's safe, better go see what's in the mail." She turned on her heel and headed straight for the front door. The quiet nature the house was still unnerving as she touched the doorknob. She paused and surveyed the room again. There was a small noise echoing in the room, and it grew louder by the second.

"Hitomi!" The door flew open and Van tackled her to the ground.

"What the?"

"Hitomi! You have mail!" He looked like a kid after Halloween, eyes completely wide and on a sugar-rush. Hitomi on the other hand was being crushed by Van's tall frame.

"So, you tackled me to the ground because I got mail?" Her voice menacing and her eyebrow quirked.

"Yes." Van said tentatively. Suddenly, tackling her to the ground seemed like a bad idea.

"And this made sense how?" Her voice began to rise and Van began to shift uncomfortably.

"Um…."

"And give me one good reason why I shouldn't beat the crap out of you?" She cracked her knuckles.

"Um….got to go!" With that Van leapt to his feat and dashed out of the room.

"Wuss." Hitomi pushed herself off the floor and started to sift through the white corporate envelopes.

"Bills, bills, credit card, birthday card for Folken, bills, and…hey what's with the music?"

"At first we started out real cool,(cool)  
Taking me places i ain'tnever been  
But now your getting comfortable  
Ain't doing those things that you did no more  
Your slowly makin me pay for things  
Your money should be handling…"

"Honestly, every time something important is about to happen, either music starts playing or my pendant starts glowing." She quickly looked down to check her pendant, just incase.

"Nothing, good." She heaved a sigh.

"Can you pay my bills  
can you pay my telephone bills  
can you pay my automo'bills  
then maybe we can chill  
I don't think you do  
so you and me are through…" The R&B music continued to float through the room. Hitomi ignored the music. Meanwhile, upstairs Van frantically tried to turn off the demonic stereo. How this thing turned on in the first place was beyond him. Back downstairs Hitomi stopped filing through the mail. There was mail for her. Her eyes grew wide. It was a letter from Scotland. She could feel a fever of anticipation grow all over her body as she ripped the envelope open. What could it possibly be? She scanned the contents quickly. It was from her uncle Isaac so she read on.

My dear niece Hitomi,

It has come to my attention that you are soon to be entering into college. I wanted to extend my funds to you so as to make your college experience more stable. I am giving you a full-ride scholarship to any college of your choice. But you must meet one condition. You must visit me in person before you leave. The loss of your dear mother still pains me and I should like to have family around to comfort me. Please send me a response of when you shall be visiting as soon as possible.

Love,

Uncle Isaac

This was odd indeed, incredible but odd. The last time her uncle spoke with her was the funeral. His sudden interest in her life was certainly abrupt and a little confusing. But with this, she could go anywhere, get an awesome education, and not have to worry about where the money was coming from.

"I should tell Van about this." Suddenly the phone rang as she moved to the stairs. Hitomi answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello Miss, I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time."

Great, a telemarketer.

"Look, I don't have time for your…"

"Oh, but you should make time." The voice grew threatening.

"Or what? You'll kidnap me? Forget it creepy guy." With that she slammed the phone down.

"Geez, the nerve of that guy! Now, what was I going to do?" Her face screwed up in concentration, her head hung down as she stared at the floorboards. The floorboards creaked.

"Not now Van." She turned around and then everything went black.

The road was rough and then suddenly smooth as glass. Wherever she was, she couldn't tell. Her feet and hands were bound with rope and her mouth was gagged. The room around her was musty and dark, and the floor beneath her hummed. There was a single man, in all black, in the room with her, watching her intently. Hitomi struggled against the ropes but to no avail.

"Well little missy," the strange man drawled ,"glad to see you awake. You're in for a long trip. I'm sure you're wondering who has sent for you, but you'll soon know the master's identity."

A thousand questions rushed through Hitomi's mind, but before she really had time to think. The strange man was at her side, injecting some sedative into her veins. Hitomi tried to scream, but the narcotic overwhelmed her senses. She only hoped that someone out there would notice her sudden departure.

"Sweet dreams little missy, heh." He sat down in front of the girl, pulled out a deck of cards, and started to play solitaire.

After three hours of hiding in his closet, whimpering like a little girl, Van decided it was time to get out (mainly because he had to pee). He climbed out from beneath the giant mound of putrid clothes sitting in his closet and inched towards the door. The door opened, for once, without any screeching noises. Van popped his head out and surveyed the hallway. After he deemed it clear, he did various Charlie's Angels moves towards the bathroom. Once Van got there, he quickly shut the door and locked it. He breathed a sigh of relief.

" Mission impossible: make to the bathroom without being clobbered by Hitomi was a success!" He made a victory pose and then went about his business.

"It was a success sir, we have the girl."

"How soon will she be here?"

"Several hours sir."

"Good, very good."

"Is that all sir?"

"Yes, just make sure she's properly taken care of until I return."

"Yes sir."

"Ah, all done. Now to find Hitomi and beg for her forgiveness! You can do this." Van left the bathroom and started to call out for Hitomi. Hearning no answer, he assumed that she had gone out to cool off for a bit.

"Hmm…might as well get a snack then!" He sprinted down to the kitchen and raided the fridge. There was one thing he failed to notice, Hitomi's glowing pendant abandoned on the floor. Even more, Van completely didn't notice when accidently kicked the pendant underneath the fridge.

Four hours later, Van was starting to worry a little. Where was Hitomi?

Author's note: Again, sorry for the long delay and sorry if this chapter sucks. But now I'm trying to get back into this after a couple years of absence, so please excuse the suckiness and random parts of the chapter. I'm only finishing this for my fans. The next chapter will be sooner than this one and it will be better.

As for the song featured in this chapter we have "Bills, Bills, Bills" By Destiny's Child from The Writings on the Wall cd.


	18. Author's Note

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Escaflowne.

Author's note:

I know I promised chapters to you all, but the hectic life at college has proven itself to be quite taxing. As for now the story is on hold, if you haven't already guessed. My goal is to finish off this story this summer. I know how I want the story to end and some key points in between, but I need to get some inspiration to finish this story. I apologize to all that have enjoyed this story so far and who have been waiting for an update. If I do not finish this story by the end of the summer, I will write a post of what would happen in the story and give you the ending (since I already know what the last scene/chapter is going to be). Let me know what you guys think about that last part.

Regina


	19. Chapter 15: Ipods, Hugo, and the Present

DISCLAIMER: I do not know Escaflowne or any of its characters.

Author's note: I warn all of you that the plot my take a huge turn or the writing style will be different. This is mainly due to personality changes or the anime I am currently watching…sailor moon. So, be forewarned!

Previously

"It was a success sir, we have the girl."

"How soon will she be here?"

"Several hours sir."

"Good, very good."

"Is that all sir?"

"Yes, just make sure she's properly taken care of until I return."

"Yes sir."

"Ah, all done. Now to find Hitomi and beg for her forgiveness! You can do this." Van left the bathroom and started to call out for Hitomi. Hearing no answer, he assumed that she had gone out to cool off for a bit.

"Hmm…might as well get a snack then!" He sprinted down to the kitchen and raided the fridge. There was one thing he failed to notice, Hitomi's glowing pendant abandoned on the floor. Even more, Van completely didn't notice when accidentally kicked the pendant underneath the fridge.

Four hours later, Van was starting to worry a little. Where was Hitomi?

Chapter 15

The rhythmic patter of feet echoed in the silent house. It was not a joyous skip or

frolic. It was not a lethargic trudge to the fridge or the act of dragging oneself to bed. Rather, it was a constant nervous pacing with the occasional screech of the sneaker turning on the hard wood floors. His body moved quickly and his brow was furrowed. He no longer cared if he was going to be pummeled for tackling her; all he cared about was where she was. It had been six hours since he had last seen her. She left no note, message, email, or even bothered to tell him if she was leaving to do something. After five hours he broke down and started calling around their group of friends. Each one had the same answer as the previous; no one knew where Hitomi was.

This particular thought made him so weary. After an hour of pacing, Van plopped down into an armchair. Without the constant sound of his footsteps, the house resumed it eerie silence.

"What am I going to do?" Van spoke to himself. "She's no where to be found."

"Maybe she went to go cool off from you annoying her." A gentle voice spoke from behind him.

"Yes, maybe she did." Silence settled over the room, only to be broken by Van's high-pitched scream and him falling out of the chair. Folken emerged from the dark doorway chuckling. Van, on the other hand, lay on the ground with his mouth in a perfect "O" shape breathing heavily. The pair stared at each other until Van had calmed his rapidly beating heart.

"Don't do that!" His voice cracked, which resulted in another chuckle from Folken.

"My dear, little brother, why are you so high strung tonight?" Another pause took over the conversation.

"Hitomi's been gone for six hours. She didn't leave a note or anything." Van responded in a meek voice with his head down and shoulders slumped. Folken studied his despondent brother and decided it best to give him a mini-pep talk.

"I'm sure she's fine. She probably went to the gym and lost track of time. Heaven knows how much you drive her nuts. If she isn't back by tomorrow morning then I would start to get worried. In the mean time, I think the best thing to do to try not to worry about it. Okay?"

A small sound sputtered from Van's lips.

"I'm sorry what was that?"

With more volume and conviction Van responded, " Okay."

"Now, it's about 9:00. I know it's a little early, but you look exhausted. Why don't you go to bed? I'll let you know if anything comes up with Hitomi."

Van responded with a groan and a stifled yawn as he lumbered up the stairs to his room. As soon as the door shut, Folken grabbed a dusty book from the table and sat in the same armchair and turned on his ipod to shuffle.

"She's not the kind of girl  
Who likes to tell the world  
About the way she feels about herself  
She takes a little time in making up her mind  
She doesn't want to fight against the tide…"

"How interesting," he thought, "this book is on comas and alternate dimensions, definitely an odd combination." As he read on, Folken began to tune out the lyrics of the singer and the nagging sensation at the back of his mind that something was indeed wrong.

A blonde head bobbed up in down as her limp body was shook by the turbulence. The man in black sat staring at the girl. Long ago, he had grown tired of solitaire. Instead, he amused himself by making stories up about this girl. His latest one was that the master wanted her to become his newest mistress. He nearly choked on his laughter just thinking of that. This girl didn't seem to be the passive type; he could see a scene in which this fireball would properly maim the master.

"What a pleasant thought," he mused.

"And lately I'm not the only one

I say never trust anyone  
Always the one who has to drag her down   
Maybe you'll get what you want this time around  
Can't bear to face the truth  
So sick he cannot move  
And when it hurts he takes it out on you."

"Listen to that little missy, we have some in-flight music."

"And lately I'm not the only one  
I say never trust anyone

Always the one who has to drag her down  
Maybe you'll get what you want this time around  
The trick is to keep breathing

The trick is to keep breathing…" The voice faded was and was replaced by crackling on the PA system.

"Oh well, so much for music." Ennui settled over the cargo hold and the two of them. Only a couple more hours until his job was done. Only a couple more hours until the master got his present. The tranquil mood that dominated this man's mind was disturbed by the vibration of his phone. Pulling it out of his pocket, he checked the caller ID; it was the master.

"Hugo speaking."

"How is the girl?"

"She's asleep. I had to sedate her at the beginning of the flight. She's a handful this one."

"Of course, I want a challenge."

"What do you intend to do with her master?"

"That is none of your business Hugo. Now, no more questions from you. You know all that you need to know for now. Continue to keep the girl under sedation until she arrives at my house."

"Of course master."

With that, both parties ended the phone call. Hugo once again gazed upon the girl. Whatever the master had in store for her did not bode well. A crackling sound from above startled Hugo, but upon inspection it was only the PA system coming back on with music. He listened attentively to the woman's voice drawl on.

"She knows the human heart  
And how to read the stars  
Now everything's about to fall apart  
I won't be the one who's going to let you down  
Maybe you'll get what you want this time around  
I won't be the one who's going to let you down  
Maybe you'll get what you want this time around  
The trick is to keep breathing."

It certainly did not bode well for the girl.

Several hours later, rubber met pavement in a furious embrace as the plane landed. After the rest of the passengers had exited the plane, Hugo grabbed Hitomi and made his way off the plane. Just as the master had said, there was a black Sedan waiting for them with other guards. Each on assisted in putting the precious cargo into the car; each one still wondering what about this girl the master wanted.

Meanwhile over at the Fanel household, Van had stumbled down into the kitchen in the middle of the night for a snack. Having forgotten to turn on the lights he ran into the walls, chairs, and small knick-knacks around the house until he reached the kitchen. A strange pink light lit up the kitchen. Van flicked the light switch to turn it off. Instead, the regular kitchen light turned on. Finding this odd, Van turned off the regular kitchen light. The pink light was still there. Deciding to find the origin of this light, Van began to search the kitchen. He started out high and worked his way down to the floor. About ready to give up and go back to bed, he looked under the counter. His eyes went wide with surprise. There was Hitomi's favorite necklace under the counter. There was the source of the pink light. Laying on his back and reaching out under the counter, Van grabbed the pendant. The pendant shone brightly for a few seconds and then faded away in the darkness; leaving Van to stumble his way back up to his room. Van knew this pendant was important to Hitomi. He knew she wouldn't leave it under the counter. It was then that Van knew for sure that something was wrong and vowed to find out what it was.

Swirling pain and darkness mingled around her head as the grogginess of the narcotics slowly lifted. She tried to open her eyes slowly, but failed. The lids were just too heavy. Her consciousness threatened to drift away. She had to try again. Wrenching her eyes open, Hitomi's vision slowly came into focus. She was in a brig of a castle. Old stone walls surrounded her except for a heavy wooded door with an air and food slot. She tried to get up. But soon found that her legs and hands were in shackles connected to the wall behind her. She felt herself grow dizzy again. Who was doing this to her? She remembered a man in black and a mysterious phone call, but she couldn't remember anything after that. A creak sounded from the door in front of her as it slowly opened. Light poured from the doorway, momentarily blinding her. She squinted until she saw a faint silhouette of a man. It strode forward and knelt down to meet her eyes. A forceful hand grabbed her chin until her eyes stung with tears.

"Finally, my present has arrived." It was then that Hitomi knew who was sitting in front of her; it was then that her vision cleared. It was then that she truly hated her life. It was then that she fainted.

Songs used:

1. The Trick is to Keep Breathing off of Version 2.0 by Garbage.

Author's note: Sorry if this chapter isn't exactly the best, I wrote in about an hour and a half. Hopefully after this chapter I'll get more into the story again. Otherwise, I'll have to force the chapters out just like this one.


	20. Chapter 20: Spit, Drugs, and Apparations

Disclaimer: I do not own Escaflowne or any of its characters.

Author's Note: Again sorry for not updating in a very long time or even following through with my original intent of ending everything last summer. I'm bored and have a lot of down time right now, so I'm going to try to get things going again. As for writing style things have probably changed and some probably haven't. I have finally decided on an ending that I think will be appropriate.

Previously:

Light poured from the doorway, momentarily blinding her. She squinted until she saw a faint silhouette of a man. It strode forward and knelt down to meet her eyes. A forceful hand grabbed her chin until her eyes stung with tears.

"Finally, my present has arrived." It was then that Hitomi knew who was sitting in front of her; it was then that her vision cleared. It was then that she truly hated her life. It was then that she fainted.

Chapter 16:

The master watched his servants work quickly to revive Hitomi. A cold rush of water and a slap to the face were all that was required to wake the girl. Gasping for breath, she strained against the shackles, letting the rough metal dig into her wrists. This had to be a nightmare. This entire situation is inconceivable. These were the only thoughts that occupied Hitomi's mind. Only when the shackle broke through the skin did Hitomi snap back to reality.

The pain and the blood were too real for a nightmare. She gathered her courage and looked up from the floor to meet her kidnapper. There he was wearing that stupid smirk, and nothing short of ripping it off of his face would please her. He walked to her and crouched down to meet her eye. Hitomi felt something bubble in her stomach; it was white hot and spread throughout her entire being. Her breathing increased as she lunged at him. He made no movement. The shackles stopped her from touching him, his close proximity and the fact that she couldn't hurt him was taunting her as much as his idiotic grin.

"Of all people, why is it you? You with your stupid blond hair and damaged brain?" Bit of spit flew into his face dampening his mood.

"Why whatever do you mean Hitomi? Haven't you missed you old classmate just a little bit?"

"Why would I ever miss such an arrogant prick like you Allen?" Feeling a little defeated, Hitomi slumped back away from Allen.

"Now, now, is that any way to treat your new cousin and master?"

"Cousin? Master?"

"Oh, dear me, I forgot to explain. Your Uncle Issac married my mother, making me your cousin."

"And how does that make you my master?"

"I thought that was obvious dear cousin. I wanted you, so I kidnapped you, and now you are mine. You can't escape from here, so I would say I have complete control over the situation."

"Feh. Someone-"

"Will what? Notice you're gone? Come for you? Rescue you? I highly doubt it. No one will be able to connect your disappearance to me or your uncle." His sickening smile grew broader as his hand stroked Hitomi's cheek. She winced.

"Don't touch me you pig. Somehow I'll get out of here. Just you wait." Once again spit flew onto his face.

"Now, now Hitomi, I thought we'd gotten past that," Allen paused to wipe his face off on his sleeve, "It seems as if we can't have a civilized conversation today. So let's get down to business then…" A quick snap of his fingers brought forth Hugo from the shadows of the doorway.

"Hugo and I will help you adjust to your stay here, with or without force, but that all depends on you, Hitomi. For now we shall leave, but not without us sedating you just a little bit." Another snap of his fingers and a bottle of pills soon appeared in Hugo's hands. She scooted up against the wall, heart palpitating, muscles tensing, her breath becoming rushes, and eyes dilating.

"No!" The scream echoed in the dungeon. Another snap and Hugo's left hand was wrenching Hitomi's mouth open while the right forced the pill down her throat.

"Hugo, stay with her until it takes affect. Don't let her throw it up." With that and a wink Allen sauntered out of the dungeon. With Hugo still hovering over her, all she could do was glare at him and swallow the pill. The minutes dragged slowly and merged into each other. Little by little, her limbs grew heavy and a spinning sensation flooded her body. She felt Hugo release her throat, step away, and leave the room. Struggling to keep her eyes open, she turned her face towards the doorway where she thought she heard whispers.

A woman stood there, blond hair and blue eyes, dirty, barefoot, and dressed in a medical gown. Her mouth opened,

"We get some rules to follow,

that and this, these and those,

no one knows.

We get these pills to swallow,

how they stick in your throat,

tastes like gold."

The light in the room flickered; something began appearing next to the woman. Allen. The edges of her vision swam with black and her throat became dry.

"No, you just left." Chest heaving, Hitomi was fighting the tugging sensation in her mind. This time Allen opened his mouth.

"Oh, what you do to me,

no one knows.

And I realize you're mine,

indeed a fool of mine,

and I realize you're mine,

indeed a fool of mine. Ahh."

"No, no, no." Her head swayed back and forth sluggishly and her eyelids began to droop. Delirium overtook her as she began to speak words unfamiliar to her,

"I journey through the desert

of the mind with no hope,

I found low.

I drift along the ocean,

dead lifeboats in the sun,

and come undone.

Pleasantly caving in, I come undone."

Allen took a step towards her and responded with the same words he did before, words that Hitomi couldn't quite fathom. Her mind went blank.

"And I realize you're mine,

indeed a fool of mine,

and I realize you're mine,

indeed a fool and mine. Ahhh.

Heaven smiles above me,

what a gift there below.

But no one knows.

A gift that you give to me,

no one knows."

A sinister look graced the apparition's features and then darkness engulfed everything.

A camera whirred in the corner of the cell. The man behind the camera watched the girl with ever vigilant eyes. His shoulders were hunched over and his lips were pursed touching the tips of his folded hands.

"Forgive me Hitomi. I had no choice in this matter, he really is a monster."His quiet words, whispered to the screen, would never be heard by the girl.

Song:

"No one Knows" by Queens of the Stone Age

Author's Note: Like I said above, I have picked out an ending, but I just need to get there. Do forgive me if the writing is horrible. There is one thing I hate and it's always saying he said she said during dialogue. I tried to vary it up a bit. But I might have failed horribly, who knows. Yes, I realize she faints a lot or is drugged a lot. It was the only way I could get the song into the story decently though. I do not know when the next update will be, but I'm going to say there will be about 4-7 more chapters left (including the epilogue). All my love to those who still like the story and don't think it's a complete piece of crap.


	21. Author's NoteUpdate

7/15/09

Update/Author's Note:

I offer my deepest apologies to everyone for the past 7 years that I have not finished this story yet. I'm going to explain my absence for those years in between updates. I have just finished my formal schooling and graduated from college. For the past 4 years I've had no life whatsoever. Considering that I majored in apparel design and development, I spent most of my time sewing, drawing, and other time consuming tasks associated with it (trust me it is like being an art major you always have huge projects). Now that I am done and have a real job, I have a bit more free time and no homework. My hope is to at least finish up this story within the year, and then do a major edit on it. Please understand that the first two chapters spacing was not my fault. 7 years ago when was still developing its programs, when I uploaded a document (regardless of how I spaced it in my word document) it ended up smooshing everything together. I still have the same ending in mind. But after I post up the "hasty" last couple of chapters, I will go through this beast and overhaul it. Hopefully it will turn out better than it did. Again, I apologize for the very long absence.

Much Love to Everyone,

Gina


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